Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly we will need to look at how we are going to clean up the mess of the $150 billion of combined Labor deficits that have been run up in just four years. The interest payments alone on these combined deficits that we are going to need to fund in the future are going to amount to $7.5 billion a year at least. And we have to come up with that $7.5 billion from tax receipts until we start paying back the principal. In fact, it is interesting that those interest payments that we have to make for this wasteful and reckless spending of the last four years are greater than the cost of a national disability insurance scheme. Of course, even if we can get that $7½ billion just to pay back the interest, we also have to look at the principal. We have heard about the great Labor surplus that is coming in 2012-13. Let us just assume for a minute that the planets actually align and we do get that surplus—a grand total of $3 billion. At that rate it is going to take us 50 years to undo the mess of just the last four years.

The other thing where we need to look at how we are going to fund it in the future is the compensation for the carbon tax. We have heard this government promise that the compensation would be permanent. I see some head-nodding over there.

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