Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

the second-highest interest rates in the developed world. What this government inherited was 16-year underlying inflation at the highest level in that period of time. What this government inherited was a fiscal record of profligate spending. And yet the Howard government enjoyed probably the best economic conditions of any government since Federation. They had given to them the best terms of trade since the gold rush. They enjoyed a commodity boom. What did they do? They went off and they spent the money.

Their beacon of inspiration in that spending was on an electoral cycle, and the beacon of inspiration was the pork barrel. Non-election year spending on average of $18.7 billion blossomed in election years up to a figure of $57.5 billion. We saw this in the now discredited Regional Partnerships program.

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