Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Deputy Chairman , Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Hansard source

The saddest thing about that 10-minute self-congratulation from the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer is that he truly believes what he was given to say. This budget delivered last night fails on almost every ground, and that is rare. It is a budget that fails in substance. It is a budget that betrays the Australian people. It is a budget that knowingly increases the cost-of-living pressures that Australian families and small businesses face. Before last night's budget, Australian families and small businesses knew for sure that cost-of-living pressures, which have increased in recent months and years, would increase again thanks to the carbon tax. They did not know that before the election, but they knew it for sure last night thanks to the Prime Minister's backflip. They now know for sure, following last night's budget and the failure of the Treasurer, that that will be matched with increases in interest rates which will increase even further cost-of-living pressures.

The government's failure on the budget has been identified by commentators here in Canberra and right across Australia. Alan Kohler described it as a budget on a 'wing and a prayer'. You do not need to take our word for it. For those backbenchers opposite, that respected economic commentator also said:

Any decent CFO would be embarrassed by this budget. There has been an $8 billion blow-out in this year's deficit since the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Review last November, a $10 billion blow-out in next year's deficit. The return to surplus the year after, requiring a $26 billion turnaround in the bottom line in 12 months, simply ignores what is happening and plugging in the same economic parameters for 2012-13 as before.

Robert Gottliebson, whom colleagues quoted in question time, made similar points.

A lot has been said quite rightly about debt. With this government, we know that the level of net government debt in dollar terms is going to be incredibly high, north of $100 billion. In 1996 when we won government from those opposite, we inherited a $96 billion debt. The Australian public are acutely aware of the cost of debt. They are acutely aware that the interest payments needed to service that debt is money that cannot be spent on day-to-day programs. They are acutely aware that the higher the level of net government debt the more pressure on interest rates. They are absolutely aware of that which is why it is like extracting teeth to get this Treasurer to name the figure for which he is responsible. Today he stated that figure. He mumbled it out. Do not take my word for the fact that this is a deceitful Treasurer; take the word of the former finance minister, who has written in his book and has belled the cat on the fact that this tactic, first in 2009, of not mentioning the budget deficit figure in the budget speech and trying to conceal the dollar figure of net government debt by referring only to the percentage of GDP was, in fact, a deliberate tactic. He has written about it in his book. What he said—and I would like those opposite to do what they normally do and howl interjections, because you will be interjecting against your own former colleague—was:

Their—

former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and the Treasurer, Wayne Swan—

understandable concern about handing a political weapon to their opponents—

in naming this figure—

was more than offset by the ridicule that this apparent attempt to deny reality invited.

It was an attempt to deny reality. That tells us a couple of things about this dishonest Treasurer. The public have had many examples over the last three or four years of where this government cannot be trusted. When we see the Treasurer refuse to name that figure, he is doing so to deliberately conceal it from the Australian people. He mumbled it out in question time today, but last night when interviewed on Sky Agenda we had the incredible spectacle where he was asked by David Speers about the level of net government debt. David Speers said: 'What sort of peak debt are we now looking at?' The Treasurer responded: 'The peak of net debt will be 7.2 per cent in 2011-12.' David Speers asked: 'But how many in dollar terms? How much in dollar terms?' Wayne Swan replied: 'Well it's relatively modest,' and listen to this, 'I haven't got the figure on me at the moment.'

This Treasurer would have you believe that he is so incompetent that he does not know the dollar figure of the net debt for which he is responsible in the budget he has just delivered to parliament. In the contest between telling the truth and concealing the level of that debt from the public he would have you believe that he has no idea—and my friend and colleague with me at the table would agree, we think he has mostly no idea. But even we cannot accept that he would not know that figure, if only for the reason that we know from the exhibit released last week, the book of the former finance minister, that this was a deliberate tactic to conceal the level of the debt. The Treasurer even knowing that still ploughs on, like some sort of out-of-control lawn mower over wet grass, with the same inane, ridiculous strategy thinking that the Australian people will somehow be prevented from knowing that net government debt will peak at $107 billion. We even had the finance minister today, again, on Adelaide radio try and refuse to reveal the figure. She could only do it for a couple of answers and we had to ask the Treasurer today to state the figure.

The $107 billion—the $106 billion and some change in the Treasurer's view—is the most generous construction that can be put on it. That is, of course—as my friend the member for Groom knows, having been a minister in the previous government—the level of debt, but is not the level of fiscal deterioration. This government did not start with a debt position; it started with savings. In fact, it started in 2007-08 with $44 billion in the bank. This is like having a credit card with $44 billion in it and ready to go before you rack-up a dollar of debt. It is a $150 billion deterioration.

I was looking through the Treasurer's first budget. Every budget speech from the Treasurer has had some element of deception. We had temporary deficits one year; remember? In his first budget, when you look down at the same table that lists the level of net government debt—on page 10.8 in this year's budget for those opposite—you would not have guessed that what was projected for this time, 2011-12, was $106 billion, but in savings, not debt. He has managed to transpose the whole show.

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