Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I will do that, Mr Speaker. I was asked about the importance of accuracy on statements and commitments regarding public finances. In the one speech yesterday, the new shadow finance minister managed to confuse ‘millions’ with ‘billions’ several times when describing the size of the budget. He managed to claim that the $6 billion that was left in the Higher Education Endowment Fund by the former government was all gone, when in fact the successor fund established by the government with those funds had in its accounts as at 31 December 2009, you guessed it, $6 billion. He claimed that debt would peak at $315 billion, when in fact the projected net debt peak is $153 billion. He claimed that current government debt was $120 billion, when the most recent announced level, of November, was $11 billion net debt. He claimed that Australian Public Service growth was out of control under Labor, when in fact in the two years of this government being in office it has increased by 2.1 per cent—most of that Defence personnel—and in the last two years of the Howard government it increased by 9.3 per cent.

The shadow minister for finance is busily churning out all of these one-liners—and distancing himself from the Leader of the Opposition meeting Lord Monckton, which I noticed with interest—but his comments are contradicting everything that the Liberal Party does and says. This is on top of his statements prior to parliament resuming. He was open to examining the government’s proposals on the private health insurance means test. That was repudiated by the Leader of the Opposition. He was opposed to the Chinese investing in the CSR spin-off company, and the Leader of the Opposition distanced himself from that. He said that the Productivity Commission had watered down its report on executive pay, and the Leader of the Opposition distanced himself from that statement. He said that company tax should be reduced, and the shadow Treasurer—what is left of him—said that that was not opposition policy. He said that Peter Spencer, the farmer who was on a hunger strike, should be compensated and then later repudiated that himself and said that, no, that should not happen.

But, of course, the most incredible statement—and the one that really did impact on public confidence—was his suggestion that the US and Australian state governments might default on their debts, that there was a possibility of ‘economic Armageddon’ and that ‘our capacity to feed ourselves and the capacity to provide the fundamentals in medicines and basic fundamental requirements for our nation’ were somehow in doubt. And he strapped on a sandwich board and was running up and down and saying, ‘The end of the world is nigh’. This is not a shadow finance minister; it is a freak show! It is the bearded lady of Australian politics. And he has taken charge of opposition economic policy!

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