Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed, they would be, because we saved money. We left money in the bank for a Labor government to come along. I think it is an acknowledged mistake of the former government to leave that much money for Labor to come along and spend so readily.

This is a good example of what the MPI today was about, which is taking real action on issues which are important to Australians, making these commitments in the election campaign about taking real action and then following through with them after the election. As the shadow Treasurer and the member for Casey so rightly pointed out, we heard much after the election about letting the sunshine in and telling Australians about what happens here and having a transparent approach to the parliament, yet when Labor get back in office, when they get their opportunity again, they do not go through with that and instead they avoid and they use all the excuses in the world.

There were some great excuses in the Assistant Treasurer’s remarks. I thought the classic was that the security of our country would be put at risk if information on what is happening to the Australian people’s money were sent to them. That is a fascinating excuse—and of course security is often used as an excuse when governments cannot win debates. I think what it has more to do with is the security of the Australian Labor Party, because when the Australian taxpayer finds out what this government has done to the economy, how much money it has spent, how much money it has borrowed and how much money it has wasted, the security of the Australian Labor Party will come under great question.

These amendments should be supported. They were a promise made by us during the election campaign. They are a promise made by us now. They should go ahead and I fully support them.

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