Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I have been critical of the Leader of the National Party for his attitude to government spending in recent times, but I would have to say this in his defence: at least his monument, the Fishing Hall of Fame, was only going to cost the taxpayer $3 million. The member for Mayo’s monument, the one that he is proposing, is $300 million. His answer and the Liberal Party’s answer to all of those Australians who are out there suffering higher prices in groceries, higher rents or higher mortgage payments and who are worried about inflation is, ‘Let them eat cake.’ That is the position that the Liberal Party and the member for Mayo put in this bizarre spending proposal.

That is not the position of the government. We accept there is a serious challenge here for the Australian government to get inflation back into the Reserve Bank target band. We accept that there is a serious challenge for this government to get government spending down to a reasonable level, not at a 4½ per cent real terms increase per annum. And most particularly, we accept that it is critical that government spending is directed to investments that will build the economic capacity of this nation for the long term, for our children—the infrastructure and skills that will generate high levels of productivity, economic growth and wellbeing for future Australians.

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