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

Worse than the Whitlam government. By anybody’s objective measure, Australians would say that the Whitlam government would have to have been the worst government this country has ever had. But fancy being able to say to people, ‘We’re going to be a bigger spending government than the Whitlam government.’ It goes without saying that a government wearing such a badge is deeply troubling to all Australians.

Of course the essential issue behind deficits is that deficits equal public debt. We are heading for what will end up being a record in public debt. This government, since it has been elected—and bear in mind that it was elected in November 2007, so 18 months ago—has increased its own spending through its own programs by $124 billion. That is a big number in itself, but I think it is always instructive to break it down. When you do, you see that that is an average of around $225 million of new spending per day. I think that is a staggering amount of money. I am confident in saying I am sure that the member for Dobell, who has just come into the Main Committee, would not be able to spend $225 million a day.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

If you break that down even further, that represents around $10 million an hour in new spending for every hour since the Rudd government was elected—an extraordinary level of spending.

As I said in the parliament just a few weeks ago, I think it is instructive to look back and see what people have said about spending in the past. I think it is always instructive, particularly, to have a look at what the Treasurer has said about government spending in the past. You see, in this year’s budget this government is spending record amounts of money. In and around last year’s budget, Treasurer Swan had quite a bit to say about government spending. As a matter of fact, in the AM program on 5 May he said:

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

This is from what is now the largest spending Treasurer in Australia’s history. He also said:

But the previous government went on a spending spree …

This is from the largest spending Treasurer in Commonwealth history. Last year he was saying that we, the previous government, went on a spending spree. It falls to this government, the Rudd government, to rein in spending. This is from Wayne Swan, Australia’s biggest spending Treasurer, the Treasurer that has put Australia in more debt than we have ever known before in our absolute history. What an amazing thing for him to say. I think the best quote of all was at a doorstop interview on 10 May 2008. This is what the Treasurer said:

What you will see on budget night is a new era of fiscal discipline …

A new era all right! We have an era of absolute spend, spend, spend which will drive not just us into debt but our children and their children’s children into debt. This will be a millstone around the neck of this country for decades and decades to come. Deficits are one thing and debt is another. The total debt that is projected from a net perspective will accumulate to $188 billion by 2012. As you would know, Mr Deputy Speaker, with debt comes a thing called interest. Interest payments alone are going to cost the taxpayers of Australia at least $8 billion a year. When you look at that interest payment, it is interesting to understand what that represents. The shadow Treasurer, the member for North Sydney, articulated this very well in a recent speech:

To put that ongoing interest bill into perspective: it is about twice the amount of money spent on housing this year. Two and half times the amount spent on sport, recreation and culture. The interest for one year will be twice the amount spent on agriculture, forestry and fishing. It’s twice the amount spent on public order and justice. And the interest bill is $1 billion more a year than we spend on transport and communications.

This government has again wrapped around all Australians a burden of massive debt that will last for decades and decades, and on top of that this enormous burden of interest. This means that the government will have $8 billion less to spend on much needed service delivery, such as hospitals, schools, health and education. It is interesting to break this deficit down to see what this means for every man, woman and child in Australia. It means $9,000 of debt for every man, woman and child in this country. What a staggering and poor reflection on Labor to give every man, woman and child in our nation a debt of $9,000 each. The interest bill alone will cost each person around $500 per year. Each day that Australians go off to work, they can know that not only are they working to look after themselves and their families but also they are needing to work to pay off their $9,000 worth of Labor debt and $500 worth of interest.

There are many other aspects of the budget that are worthy of comment. One of the areas is the change in the budget to superannuation. In introducing this subject, it is interesting to remember that it was only 12 days before the last election that the Prime Minister said on radio in Brisbane:

There’ll be no change to superannuation laws one jot, one tittle.

That was a quote from a radio program on 4BC 12 days before the last election. We all know that the Prime Minister is prone to the use of interesting words such as ‘jots’ and ‘tittles’, but we have seen in this budget significant changes to the laws of superannuation just 18 months after he promised not to change them one jot or one tittle. The government superannuation contributions for low- and middle-income earners have been slashed by one-third while tax relief on other people’s superannuation concessional contributions have been cut in half. Again, you see Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister, during the election campaign saying one thing and then breaking that and doing an entirely different thing once he gets into office. We hear all the time that this is all the result of the global financial crisis, but while we were in government we weathered the storm of the Asian financial crisis, we had the worst drought in 100 years, we had the tech wreck, we had the war on terrorism, we had SARS and we had the world oil shock.

Throughout all of that, we created a record 2.2 million new jobs in Australia; the rate of unemployment hit its lowest level in over 33 years; the economy sustained consistent growth, year on year; real wages increased by more than 21½ per cent; and $96 billion worth of Labor debt was repaid, which saved over $8.4 billion a year in interest. Taxes were reduced for all Australians. We reduced personal income tax and marginal income tax. We introduced the lower income tax offset. Superannuation payments received tax reductions—and capital gains tax, of course. We also presided over the fewest strikes in Australia’s history, and our credit rating was upgraded twice to AAA. That is what the coalition government achieved during its term in office, whilst we weathered all those significant global events, as I said.

What has happened since Labor came to office? Since Labor came to office, a few things have happened. The first thing is that the economy has gone backwards since Labor came to office. Second, unemployment has risen. There are more people out of work now, since Labor came to office. Consumer confidence has totally collapsed since Labor came to office. Business confidence is at all-time low since Labor came to office. Industrial disputes have increased since Labor came to office. Taxes have increased since Labor came to office. The budget has gone from a healthy surplus to a massive deficit since Labor came to office. The Prime Minister has spent almost as many days out of the country as he has in the country since Labor came to office. The level of wealth in Australia’s households has experienced a significant decline since Labor came to office.

In summary, since Labor came to office, Australia has had inflicted on it what is really an inexcusable trifecta: higher debt, higher employment and more strikes—all since Labor came to office. This budget is another poor reflection on the way that Labor manages this economy, and that is why Australia is now suffering higher debt and higher employment than at any other time since World War II. It is a very poor reflection on Labor.

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