Alex Somlyay (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do recognise the tune. If you have a look at the amount of money that the Labor government is borrowing you can see that it is $711 million per week. At that rate of borrowing, do you know how long it would take to raise the funds—the amount to be raised by the levy is $1.5 billion—under the current borrowing program? It would take 2.5 weeks. For the total reconstruction $5.5 billion is needed. At $700 million per week, that would take 7.7 weeks of borrowing.

The Prime Minister says that this new tax is needed to bring the budget back into surplus by 2012-13. Until then, the borrowing that I have mentioned continues. We are told that all our troubles will then be over; we will be back in surplus. That is right, but it is wrong that our troubles will be over. This is the great Labor spin. If Labor ever achieves a surplus, that is when they will start to pay off the debt that they have accumulated. In the meantime the interest payments continue. This is why we on this side of the House are saying that the reconstruction of Queensland after the floods should be paid for by savings by the government and not by a new tax. I oppose this bill.

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