Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Labor had spent every dollar in the can and, what is more, they had hocked the future. We are in a situation today where the Labor Party is back in government. And what happens? Groundhog Day; it all happens again. They not only spend the money that was there, but they actually spend all of tomorrow’s money as well.

I think it is the first time in my recollection that a Treasurer actually stood up to deliver a budget speech and did not tell us what the budget was. I cannot recall—and in fact a number of members of this House and outsiders actually could not recall—a situation where the Treasurer did not have the courage to come into this place and give a fair dinkum assessment of the real impact of the budget. Do you know why? Because the Labor Party were desperate to spin this budget into total confusion. And in some way they got away with it. They talked tough before the budget came down. They leaked all these figures out to pretend that it could be terrible, far worse than anything that happened. Of course when they delivered it was better than expected and they said: ‘Isn’t it great we’ve got only 8½ per cent unemployment? Isn’t it fantastic? We’ve done so well. It could have been 10. It could have been 15 per cent. But you know what? We’re delivering 8½ per cent unemployment. We’re so good.’ That is what the Labor Party say. That is great, isn’t it. It was four per cent 18 months ago, and the Labor Party take pride in one million Australians being unemployed. They are saying the budget deficit could have been $70 billion next year: ‘And you know what? It’s fantastic. Aren’t we great? We’ve delivered $58 billion. Haven’t we done a wonderful job? Forget that it’s the largest budget deficit since World War II. Forget that. That’s irrelevant.’

This is the 13th episode of Fawlty Towers. I am having terrible flashbacks of Manuel and Basil Fawlty—all of them, the whole team. I am reminded of that song Ship of Fools because it is a ship of fools over there. The problem for us and the problem for all Australians is this: the ship of fools is running the country. The ship of fools is running up the biggest deficit in modern Australian history. The ship of fools is running up the biggest debt in Australian history: $9,000 for every man, every woman and every child in Australia. And you know what? It will be bigger. I am prepared to bet everything I have that the Labor Party deficit and debt will be far bigger than what we heard last night, because that is how they do it. The Labor Party has no restraint; the Labor Party has no control.

It is very interesting, isn’t it? They come in here and selectively quote from so-called authorities about how they have got a plan to get out of it. There will be the usual sycophantic so-called business representatives that will say that the Labor Party has a plan to get out of debt and deficit. But I tell you what: the ANZ described the budget as having ‘optimism’ around the economic forecasts, suggesting there is considerable scope for slippage. ‘Slippage’—this is a new one! And the National Australia Bank said:

Our real concern is that the budget does not lay out a credible medium-term policy to return the budget to a more sustainable footing …

Damn right—the NAB is absolutely right. In perhaps the most truthful analysis of the forecasting and the Labor Party’s so-called plan to get the budget back into surplus, JP Morgan says:

Swan Diving into the Red Sea

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Crucially, the Treasurer’s “cross your fingers” strategy for returning the Budget to surplus relies principally (and optimistically) on a return to strong, above trend economic growth, rather than the “hard decisions” he promised.

Amen. Hard decisions represent one per cent of all expenditure over the five years that they are citing. One per cent—that is the ‘hard decision’. If you believe the Labor Party’s commentary, our position on that is going to decide the future of the nation’s finances, with one per cent—one per cent!—of total expenditure going to be saved. That is the big political issue today. That is why they are a ship of fools.

They do not understand that it is the structural issue that is the problem. When you give people a so-called plan, it had better have credibility. The Labor plan has no credibility. It is based on assumptions that the IMF and the RBA do not agree with—not that the IMF and the RBA are always right, but there is a level of credibility associated with them, as there is with JP Morgan, the National Australia Bank and everyone else who says that these figures are rubbery.

Do you know what? Underpinning this estimation—that they are going to get out the deficit, and that is not even the debt but the deficit—is an assumption that Australia is going to come out of this recession faster than anyone really thinks, but we are also going to have the longest period of above-trend growth than anyone can remember. It will be the mining boom on steroids that gets these guys out of a deficit and a debt. The problem is that every Australian is going to have to pay for this. And, lo and behold, out of all of this the key issue is—we believe it when the government says it, as does everyone else—that this government will not make one new spending decision between now and 2017. Do we believe that?

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