I refute the implication by Senator Ross that the Labour Party looked to buy votes in some way at the last general election. It is not my business to defend other parties and in a sense the last election is certainly seen as spilt milk by the Labour Party in that we did not succeed in persuading enough people to vote for us. I take exception to the constant repetition of this notion that we attempted to buy votes. The Labour Party proposals targeted where we would spend extra money and outlined from where we would obtain it. We proposed increases in taxation and charges and diversion of money from existing funds. I refute the notion that, to use Senator Ross's phrase, we would have bankrupted the country before Christmas. Nothing could be further from the truth. We made the hard choices because we identified, at an early stage, that it was necessary to make a link between increasing charges and taxation and spending extra money. It is what any responsible Opposition party would do.