Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Tax Laws Amendment (2009 Measures No. 1) Bill 2009. Firstly, may I express to the House my outrage at some of the statements we have just heard from the member for Corangamite. His speech was not only tedious and repetitious but also somewhat misleading, and the fact that I cannot get those 20 minutes of my life back again is also slightly annoying. It is simply utterly outrageous for someone from the government to walk into this House and say with blatant effrontery, audacity and indeed temerity that the $42 billion to be spent on social infrastructure is coming out of ‘surpluses’. The figures show that, in December, this government was $14 billion in the red. The member for Corangamite stood here and spoke of the government’s record of surplus, but this government has delivered not a single surplus.

The 2007-08 budget, framed by the Howard-Costello government, delivered a surplus of $18 billion or $19 billion and it was a credit to the Howard-Costello years. The 2008-09 budget, which was framed with such fanfare by the Labor government to show a $22 billion surplus, was $14 billion in the red by December. Yet the member for Corangamite walks in here and talks about the government’s record of surpluses and the government’s $42 billion cash splash for social infrastructure that is coming out of the ‘surplus money’ that is just floating around in the government system. Clearly he was on planet Zorb when the government brought in a bill to borrow $200 billion, to increase the issuance of government bonds by $125 billion to allow $200 billion worth of debt. Clearly he was on the moon Zorbette, which goes around planet Zorb, when yesterday the government brought in Ruddbank to take contingent liability up to $28 billion. This government is putting this nation $228 billion in hock.

Let us compare that to the Howard-Costello years. We paid off $96 billion of debt. We paid off $56 billion of interest on that debt. That is $152 billion. We put $60 billion in the Future Fund. That is $215 billion.

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