Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As always, I am pleased to speak in the House of Representatives, this great chamber of democracy, and represent the people I have the great privilege of interacting with in the suburbs of Moggill, Bellbowrie, Jindalee, Westlake, Middle Park and across the river in Taringa and Indooroopilly. They are hardworking Australians who want of their government genuine fiscal prudence, good ideas and good policies. I know they are very disappointed with the second Rudd budget, delivered by the Treasurer earlier this month. They are very disappointed because it is a Labor budget through and through. It is a Labor budget through and through because it is irresponsible and takes this country into territory that means their children will be saddled with great debt and there will be a great deficit in this country.

My Queensland colleague the Labor member for Leichhardt said that coalition members will go on about debt and deficit. I can assure him that I will certainly do that, and I know my colleagues will continue to do that, because we know how significant it is to ensure that the national budget, just like a household budget or a business budget, is kept within a certain framework. You cannot have a situation where the government of the day just spends willy-nilly, recklessly and irresponsibly, and takes the country into very dangerous waters when there is no ability down the track to service that debt.

This budget was supposed to be a tough budget. Of course, in the week leading up to the budget, senior members of the Rudd government tried to give to the Australian people the impression that they were going to be tough, that it was going to be a horror budget and that they would make sure that no area of Commonwealth expenditure was untouched. Why were they going to do that? Because they themselves realised that the earlier cash splash and the earlier investment of hard taxpayer dollars into things like Pink Batts were really not delivering the returns that they should have. They were being very political in trying to keep the economy out of recession. Of course, we are now in the third quarter of a recession—and they failed miserably to prevent that. A lot of taxpayers’ money has gone down the drain. Regrettably, the children of the people I represent will be paying for that very heavily in the months, years and, indeed, decades ahead.

This budget is also one of broken promises. It is short-sighted. It does not deliver what the people of Australia, certainly the people of the electorate of Ryan, expect from the national government. In short, it is a very weak budget. It was delivered by a Treasurer who is clearly out of his depth. I regret to say again that tens of thousands of families across this great country will be paying for it. They might not think they will be paying for it as I speak but certainly there will come a time when they realise that the credit card can no longer be maxed out.

I want to draw the attention of the parliament and of the people of Ryan to the $188 billion figure. They will hear a lot about this. This is the figure that the government refuses to talk about. This is the record net debt that is going to be a chain around this country in a few short years. I also want to draw the attention of the House and of the constituents of Ryan to the $58 billion deficit figure. It is remarkable that when the Treasurer delivered the national budget he could not bring himself to mention that. When we are talking about those kinds of dollars one would expect the Treasurer to be able to eloquently articulate the actual amount of money that this country is in debt for. I repeat it again: it is $58 billion.

Interestingly, the government seems to be satisfied that the unemployment rate is a single-digit figure—8½ per cent. I think that is atrocious. How can we be content to say that the unemployment rate is only in single digits? Of course, we on this side of the chamber all know that when we came into government there were one million people unemployed. That was the legacy of the Keating recession we had to have. Interestingly, here we are with a Labor Prime Minister and a Labor Treasurer in a recession. That is very interesting indeed.

The other point that I want to draw very strongly on in my remarks is the issue of private health insurance rebates. In the Ryan electorate, a lot of people have taken up private health insurance. They are doing their bit to ensure that others who might not have the financial means have the opportunity of accessing our public health system. They have chosen to take out private health insurance with the 30 per cent rebate that the previous Howard government invested in as a very strong public policy signal. Yet in the budget just delivered the Rudd government have signalled that they are going to attack this. What that is going to mean is that everyday Australians—the working families that Labor allegedly represents—are going to pay a high price.

The superannuation co-contribution scheme was a very significant scheme. The previous government and the Treasurer were very creative and innovative in that policy area. That scheme was clearly designed to bolster the retirement savings of low- and middle-income earners. This has been cut by a third. That is appalling. At a time when we have an ageing population and we are trying to encourage as many Australians as possible to save for their future, it was the public policy view of the previous government, and remains so, that we should be doing all we can to encourage people to put away extra dollars. The government’s co-contribution scheme was very popular. It was a very positive signal. Yet the Rudd Labor government has savaged this by a third.

Australians are going to be working longer to pay off Labor’s debt. We all know that the pension age is being pushed out to 67. We see in recent media reports that this is something that a lot of Australians are not going to put up with. It just shows that Labor’s debt is something that is going to be affecting all kinds of Australians in all kinds of ways for many years to come.

Essentially, with a Labor government, a Labor Prime Minister and a Labor Treasurer, Labor’s reckless economic management is going to hurt not only this country as a whole but individual Australians. It is going to hurt retired people, families, businesses and vulnerable and exposed people—those who Labor says are really its core constituency. It is going to hurt the very people who Labor says that it represents; it is going to hurt the very people who Labor says are its natural followers. I say to those across the length and breadth of this country that Labor is not your friend at all. How can Labor be your friend when it is taking the country into great debt and great deficit?

Just like a business debt or a household debt, that has to be repaid. At some point in time, in some way, the children of Australia today are going to pay that price. Those who are in their 50s now will be paying the price later on, because the capacity of the Australian government in the future to maintain a certain lifestyle for them will be much diminished. The government will simply not have the money in the bank; it will not have the financial resources in its kitty to maintain the lifestyle that we experience today and that we expect should be delivered to people who throughout their working life have paid their taxes and done the right thing and who in their retirement want to maybe do a little bit of community work but also want a standard of living that gives them dignity in their old age. But, as I said, there will come a time when the government of the day, whether it is a coalition government or indeed a Labor government, will be confronted with this incredible debt, which will be an imposition on its finances that it will have to repay.

Do not think for a moment that anyone is divorced from the national government in terms of the country’s financial responsibilities. Mr and Mrs Australia, you are affected by what the Prime Minister of this country does. With this Labor Prime Minister, clearly all the signs are that you will be affected in a more detrimental way. If you own and run businesses, those businesses will be detrimentally affected. That is something that I will turn to in a moment.

At the end of the day, governments do not create wealth; bureaucrats do not create wealth. That is perhaps the fundamental distinction between this side of the chamber and those opposite. We on this side of the chamber—we of the Liberal and National political stripe—strongly hold the view that it is business, small, medium and large, that creates wealth. Entrepreneurs and innovators create wealth; those who are willing to put their own capital on the line create wealth; those who are willing to come together to join their talent and initiative and to combine their resources and networks create wealth. They are the ones who ought to receive the gratitude of the Australian people. They are the ones who create wealth and jobs. When students come out of school, they look to entrepreneurs and business men and women to provide them jobs. That is something that the policy compass should always be focused on. I encourage the leadership of the federal opposition and all colleagues on this side to keep that as the anchor—as the rock—for how we represent our people.

I come from a small business background in the sense that my parents owned a little corner shop. They were not fancy people. They were regular people, Mr and Mrs Average. The resources that they were able to put together to put me through law school and my brother and sister through medical school reflect that philosophy. They were ordinary people who worked their backsides off, paid their taxes and did their community service and who wanted to be left alone. They worked on their own initiative and contributed to the fabric of this country.

I am very proud of my parents. Indeed, they are my heroes. They and people like them are the spine of this country. People like them across the country collectively sacrifice so much and contribute so much to the future of this country. I will continue to remind my colleagues—indeed, I hope, sometime very soon, a future Liberal Prime Minister—that they are the heart and soul of our support base and they are the kinds of people we must in every fashion look after. They are the ones who create opportunities for the rest of the country. We must always remember that.

I want to humanise this presentation by making reference to a young constituent from the Ryan electorate who has very kindly not only given me her permission but indeed encouraged me to quote her name. I want to thank you, Melissa Rowan, from the Ryan electorate. She wrote to me. She is 19 years old and she asked me to use her words in whatever form I could to reflect the thinking of a lot of young people. It is very instructive. This will be of great interest to other young people in the Ryan electorate and, I know, the many others in the Ryan electorate that I represent. In an email to me on 27 April she wrote:

Dear Mr Johnson,

I am writing this letter to voice my complaint about Kevin Rudd’s Stimulus Package.

My name is Melissa Rowan and I am 19 years old from Brisbane …

…            …            …

I find this highly offensive—

she is talking about the stimulus package—

just because I earnt under the threshold that I am not entitled to this payment. I am now working fulltime and have been for 12 months. I am a tax payer and I pay tax so people on Centerlink benefits can get money. Pensioners and Centerlink members got $1400 at Christmas time … I paid my tax as a paye and I submitted my taxation group certificait which was assessed accordingly for the year …

I am also aware students who were working part time and studying who earnt under the threshold are entitled to this payment but myself as a working person I am not …

…            …            …

I also find it very discriminatory that I will be paying for deceased persons to receive this payment, people to receive two lots of payments and people in jail. I do not believe I should be paying for a ‘pet’ to receive this stimulus package.

We all know that pets happened to receive hard-earned taxpayers’ money as well, of course.

I have heard of a third stimulus package and I am very against this.

I am a hard working Australian who only earns about $23000 a year and I am currently struggling to pay for braces which are $6580 and next year (2010) I will be needing a Jaw operation which will cost me $5000. I am paying for private health insurance for this operation and to top it all off I will be getting retrenched along with 80 other staff at my workplace …

I am deeply upset and affected by this …

…            …            …

Kevin Rudd is trying to win the vote of younger Australians. I just wanted to point out that there are young people like myself very unhappy with what the Rudd Government is doing.

…            …            …

This is just not right. People who have not received this money should not have to pay so millions of people can get a one off $900 bonus that we as taxpayers will be paying off for years to come. My Children one day will be paying for this. I am just very disappointed and uncomfortable about this.

I believe this Stimulus Package is a very big mistake and will put Australia into deep debt. John Howard worked so hard to clear debt and to save money. Now Kevin Rudd is wasting billions of dollars that future generations will have to pay. It’s just not fair. This is an insult to tax payers and Kevin Rudd can not understand what most Australians are going through. He promised this would create jobs but this has not created jobs, if anything people have or will lose their jobs. This is dispicable what the Rudd Government is doing. This is nothing but a popularity contest to them.

I want to end my remarks, because regrettably time has escaped me. This is a young Australian—Melissa Rowan, who is 19 years old—from the Ryan electorate, who in those words expressed quite eloquently the increasing sentiment in this country that this is a government that is clearly out of its depth, that has no idea how to manage this economy, and that has clearly no capacity to distinguish between quality spending and wasteful spending.

We cannot simply throw money to try to artificially create jobs. What is needed is sustainable jobs. Just throwing money in the guise of a stimulus package to the extent that the government has spent that money is unsustainable. We need to support businesses and entrepreneurs because, as I said earlier, they are the ones that create jobs. You do not create them by throwing money so that a handful of companies can install Pink Batts in roofs. What happens after that? What happens after they have installed them? Do they come back to the government for more money so that they can go back and install more batts? This is the absurdity of it. This is the complete intellectual dishonesty and policy laziness of the Rudd Labor government. Just spending money is not a policy. Just playing Santa Claus is not a policy. You have got to do the hard yards.

We are not in the business of highlighting to the government what we are going to do at this time. We have already seen you copy 98 per cent of our tax policy at the last election. We will be ready for you. If you want to bring on an election, bring it on. If you think that the people of Ryan are not ready to show you what they think about the Rudd Labor government, bring on an election. I am campaigning hard. I am looking forward to the next election. I can assure you that I will be letting every single one of my constituents—the constituents that I have had the great pleasure of representing here since 2001—know that we cannot afford a Labor government anymore. We cannot for one day longer than is necessary afford to have a Labor government. (Time expired)

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