Chris Pearce (Aston, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

yes, the member for Braddon is right: absolute—to provide a credible plan to ensure Australia’s economic recovery. It is incredible that we are standing here today talking about Australia’s economic recovery. It is incredible to think that it has taken just 18 months for the Rudd Labor government to take our nation from a healthy surplus position to a horrendous deficit position—record speed. I know it will alarm the member for Braddon that we have gone from a healthy surplus to a horrendous deficit in record speed. The fact is that Labor has lost control of our nation’s public finances. That is the most worrying thing, and again I know the member for Braddon will be very concerned about that—his own government has lost control of the nation’s public finances.

When you look at the deficits projected in the budget, you see a $32 billion deficit this year, which is a $50 billion turnaround in one year; a $58 billion deficit in 2009-10; a $57 billion deficit in 2010-11; a $45 billion deficit in 2011-12; and a $28 billion deficit in 2012-13. All of this adds up to a massive $220 billion in deficits. It is unbelievable, isn’t it, Madam Deputy Speaker—$220 billion in deficits.

On top of that, if that is not enough, this Rudd Labor government have achieved the position—and I suspect, based on the last speech, that they are actually proud of this—of the biggest spending government since World War II. They plan to reach a spending level of 29 per cent of GDP. This is, I think most alarmingly, even worse than the Whitlam government and even worse than the Keating government. Can you believe, Madam Deputy Speaker, that anybody could be worse than Gough Whitlam’s and Paul Keating’s governments? That is the position this government have reached. They have assumed the position of the biggest spending government—even worse than Whitlam’s and Keating’s.

The central issue behind deficits is that deficits equal public debt. Given that we are heading for record deficits, naturally we are heading for record public debt as well. This government has, since it was elected in November 2007, increased new spending by a massive $124 billion. If you break that down, it comes to an average of $225 million of new spending per day.

It is often interesting to go back to what people in this House have had to say about spending. It is interesting to remember what the Treasurer said on 5 May last year about spending. This is from a Treasurer who is going to be the highest spending Treasurer since World War II, spending $225 million a day:

… we—

the government—

are going to wind back the excessive increase in government spending that’s occurred in recent years …

The Treasurer said he was going to wind back the excessive increase in government spending, yet he is going to be the highest spending Treasurer since World War II. He also said, on 10 May last year:

So, what you’ll see on Budget night is a new era of fiscal discipline …

A new era all right! This is the new era, the era of typical Labor—big spending and big taxing. This reckless spending by Labor means that the net debt of our country is going to grow to $188 billion by 2012.

Now, that is bad enough—it is bad enough to have $188 billion of net debt. But, do you know what happens? When you have debt, you have this added thing called interest. We have not heard the government talking about this in recent days. But interest payments, as a result of their debt, are going to cost at least $8 billion a year. What that means is that there is $8 billion a year less that can be spent on hospitals, that can be spent on schools, that can be spent on roads, that can be spent on helping people throughout the community who need help. This government is going to have to set aside $8 billion a year to fund its massive debt.

Overall, as I said, Labor’s debt will be the biggest in peacetime Australia. What a badge of honour! All Labor members can wear that badge throughout their electorates over the coming weeks. They can walk around their respective electorates and they can say to everybody, ‘I’m a member of the biggest-spending government in peacetime Australia; I’m a member of the government that is going to take this nation to record levels of debt; I’m a member of a government that is going to have to set aside $8 billion a year to fund the interest payments alone, before we do anything.’

I think it is always reflective to fully understand the impact of such economic recklessness on all of us in this nation. The fact is that the Labor deficits will mean $9,000 of debt for every man, for every woman and for every child in our country. What a staggering reflection it is on the Australian Labor Party that they would bequeath to every man, woman and child in this country a debt of $9,000 each. Furthermore, the interest, as I mentioned earlier, is going to cost each person in our country around $500 a year. So, each day that Australians go out to work, to earn a living to look after themselves and their families, to save for their futures, they know that before they do anything they are going to have to cover the costs of $500 per year for the interest alone. And, as we heard from the Leader of the Nationals, it is going to take decades and decades to pay off that debt.

I think the most concerning issue is the fact that, above and beyond everything, when you look at history it reveals certain things. There is one thing about Australian political history that is certain: Labor has never paid off its debts—never. History is going to repeat itself once again. I guess at its core it is not the Labor way to pay off debt. The Labor way is to spend big, to tax big, to drive our economy headfirst, full-on, into a deep recession, to mount up enormous debt, to load all Australian men, women and children with debt for years and years and then to leave it to someone else to fix, like they did last time. Yet again, Australian political history will prove that this is another case where Labor has taken our country to the bottom, driven us into huge debt with massive interest—and somebody else is going to have to come in here and fix it. And that somebody else, of course, will end up being the coalition. Political history will repeat itself and, just like before, the coalition will have to fix the problem. (Time expired)

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