Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has sought to revive his ailing leadership with pledges to cut petrol excise and block a 70pc tax hike on pre-mixed alcoholic drinks.
In a crucial performance watched intently by his back bench last night, Dr Nelson also vowed in his budget reply speech to stop an exodus from health insurance by blocking Labor's plan to cut a tax slug on higher earners without private cover.
Pitching himself as a friend of the battlers, Dr Nelson charged that Labor had failed the people it promised to help at the last election in "an underwhelming budget … of lost opportunity".
"This is an old-fashioned high-taxing, high-spending Labor budget that seeks to punish those it does not like and discourage aspiration," he said.
The pitch came at the end of a day dominated by a parliamentary fight over the alcopops tax hike, with Coalition health spokesman Joe Hockey waving around small bottles of sparkling wine and a rum-based mixed drink during question time to accuse the Government of double standards, because the wine had twice the alcohol content but attracted half the tax rate.
Health Minster Nicola Roxon insisted the move on alcopops was a health measure, not a tax grab, because Treasury modelling predicted it would cut consumption by up to 55 million bottles a year by 2011.
Dr Nelson charged that the plan would merely hit "responsible Australians who happen to enjoy a pre-mixed Bundy and coke or scotch and dry" and vowed to use the Coalition majority in the Senate to oppose the excise bill.
Coalition senators yesterday referred the issue to an inquiry, delaying a vote until June 24.
Dr Nelson also pledged to convene a summit to bring together experts to devise a strategy to tackle binge drinking.
Despite the Coalition's rejection of calls for a petrol tax cut when it was in government, Dr Nelson last night proposed a "responsible and fair" cut of five cents a litre, to cost $1.8 billion a year.
He pilloried Labor's appointment of a petrol commissioner, saying: "Watching petrol prices does not bring them down."
On private health insurance, Dr Nelson said that lifting the threshold for the Medicare tax surcharge would damage the whole system.
"Health insurance premiums will increase with measures that will see … half a million mainly young people drop out — leaving families, pensioners and retirees to face higher premiums," he said.
In other pledges, he proposed a capital gains tax break for people who sell a small business they have owned for five years to fund retirement.
He also committed the Coalition to restore the Investing in Our Schools program and to force trainee teachers to learn to teach reading with phonics.
He also vowed to block Labor's plan to expand the income test for the seniors health card to include super salary sacrifice contributions.
The Treasury advice on alcopops says it is difficult to predict the impact of the tax increase.
But while it admits the hike could result in people simply drinking more of other products, it assumes there will be no impact on overall alcohol consumption.
Mr Hockey said that the Treasury advice showed there was a 50-50 chance that people would go to alternative drinks with more alcohol.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hit back, saying it was remarkable that Dr Nelson had initially supported the alcopops tax for a week after it was announced.
He said the Liberal Party had lost its way on social policy issues such as binge drinking.
Family First senator Steve Fielding, who has campaigned for a 10-cent petrol excise cut since 2005, last night applauded the Coalition plan.
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