Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Bendigo highlights the point. This government is the most arrogant government and the most dangerous economic government we have had since Gough Whitlam had his hands on the levers. We know that because most of those on the other side are great disciples of Gough. There was a great celebration last week for his birthday, and I congratulate him on being the oldest former prime minister. However, he was a terrible prime minister. What we are seeing here is a bigger spend than Gough, by GDP. We have seen a situation where this government inherited a $22 billion inheritance that has been spent, with another $22 billion and another $30 billion next year, and they are asking for the bank to extend their credit card to $200 billion. There is not a shred of economic credibility left on the other side.

There is no evidence that the first package worked. There is no evidence that this package will work. There are general assertions and there is politics, and that is all it is about. How do we say it is politics? Let us look at the language in the House of the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and other ministers who have their answers drafted by the hollowmen in the PM’s office each day. It is either ‘decisive’ or ‘a temporary deficit’. Where did the ‘temporary deficit’ come from? I understand it came from a former Treasurer and then prime minister in the early 1990s who claimed that it would be a temporary deficit. It was only temporary until the coalition was elected and then it was turned around, when tough decisions were made in 1996 to bring the budget back into the black to reduce those interest payments. That is the only time it was dragged around, and the ‘temporary’ was ended. And that is what will happen here again. It cannot be temporary when the out years all predict a deficit. There is no plan to get out of deficit; there is no plan for a future surplus. This is Labor writ large.

Instead of spending his holidays writing an 8,000-word ideological rant based on some thought bubble I think he had before Christmas and trying to box the Leader of the Opposition into a corner, the Prime Minister really should have sat down and thought about a plan to keep Australia strong. Let us not forget that he has inherited one of the best economic situations in the world. I will quote from someone who is not a supporter of ours, who said on the weekend that:

Australia has a AAA foreign currency rating.

We have open and competitive markets backed up by a world class financial and prudential regulatory system—indeed given the flaws exposed by the global financial crisis in financial and prudential regulation I would say our system is even better than world class.

That was not said by a supporter of ours; it was actually the Deputy Prime Minister. She said that our system is better than world class. It is a system inherited by those on the other side. They will deny it, I am sure. They will sit there and shake their heads and say they did it all—

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