Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Gillard Labor government's Parliamentary Service Amendment (Parliamentary Budget Officer) Bill 2011. This bill will provide for the establishment of a parliamentary budget office and the appointment and functions of an independent parliamentary budget officer. There is no better time than this to introduce and pass this bill. Time after time we have seen the Liberal Party's lack of economic legitimacy, credibility and responsibility, such as in their $11 billion black hole during the election period and more recently and more alarmingly the $70 billion black hole they have created since. I do not think the Australian parliament or the people have ever needed a parliamentary budget office as much as we do now, with the current Leader of the Opposition and his shadow Treasurer. Of course, the opposition oppose the measures in these bills. It suits their self interest and shows their economic weakness—of which they have plenty. The bill exposes them as the economically illiterate party that they are.

The Gillard government will provide $24.9 million over four years to establish this independent—and I will keep highlighting that word—parliamentary budget office. This is based on the unanimous recommendations of the Joint Select Committee on the Parliamentary Budget Office. The parliamentary budget office will be independent and dedicated to serving this parliament. The committee that made the recommendations included members of the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, the National Party, the Greens and Independents. The government has accepted all of these recommendations, but now the opposition are undermining the recommendations of the committee and its own members—the work of the member for Sturt, the work of the member for Higgins and the work of Senator Barnaby Joyce, although for the last one that is quite understandable. I am sure that the members on the other side who have put in the hard work to get to this position are quietly fuming that the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer have thrown away this report and basically kicked all of their hard work into the dirt.

The Liberal Party are so afraid of economics that they want to hide their weaknesses under a rug and hope that no-one will notice them as they will reduce the transparency and public accountability of the election costings process. This would mean that the costings would remain confidential and hidden from the Australian public. We know why the Leader of the Opposition wants to keep those costings hidden. We have seen why on numerous occasions. Their paid parental scheme is a prime example as it alone had a half-billion-dollar gap in it. There was a failure to count the basic numbers, which is terrible. We saw an $11 billion costings blunder during the election and now, as I said, there is a $70 billion black hole. The Leader of the Opposition is not only mindlessly negative but has also admitted that economics is a bore. That is why, I guess, under the 13 years of the Liberal-led government he was never trusted with responsibility for the economy. But we know what he was trusted with—the Liberal Party seem to acknowledge that he is good with cuts and good with slashing funding for hospitals. His recklessness with the budget, jobs and household budgets shows that he does not have the judgment to manage Australia's $1.4 trillion economy. This bill further strengthens this argument because he does not have a clue. He finds it easy to dig these billion-dollar holes, but he can never seem to find his way out of them. It seems he is content to sit and try to bluff the Australian public. The Leader of the Opposition quite seriously could not even manage monopoly money, let alone our economy.

The most recent black hole, probably one of the biggest economic blunders in Australia's political history, is a $70 billion hole that the Leader of the Opposition has dug for himself. How would they pay for this black hole? They would have to manage savage cuts to services and payments on which families and older Australians depend, such as the equivalent of no Medicare for four years which would force Australians to pay for a doctor whenever they are sick and need medical attention most.

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