Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Hansard source

We have recently heard a litany of confusion and make-up. In recent weeks we have had to suffer the embarrassment of our Prime Minister and our Treasurer lecturing Europe about their economic woes. As we have just heard from the member for Maribyrnong, the lecturing of Europe has only served to highlight the incompetence of those opposite in managing our economy.

Overnight we heard more platitudes from our Prime Minister, who, speaking in Europe, admonished the Europeans for muddling through and urged them to get a plan. Can you believe it? It is the pot calling the kettle black. It comes from a Prime Minister and a Treasurer who have muddled from one train wreck to another. It is cringe worthy. They are lecturing the Europeans, yet it is looking increasingly likely that this government will once again have to raise the debt ceiling above the quarter of a trillion dollars that they raised it to only months ago from $70 billion when they took office. They have raised it now to a quarter of a trillion dollars, and it is looking likely that they will come back again into this place within 12 months and look for a further rise in that debt ceiling.

Their self-esteem is such that our Prime Minister and Treasurer are now offering to borrow more money to bail out Europe. This is a Europe which this year will again, after many years of doing the same thing, spend tens of billions of dollars subsidising their farmers so that our own farmers are locked out of their markets. They are going to spend tens of billions of dollars in Europe to lock our farmers out of their markets and disadvantage our farmers, yet we are going to help bail out Europe with tens of millions of dollars in aid. This is a nonsense, this is cringe worthy, this is embarrassing and, more importantly, this is sheer incompetence.

What do you think people who are struggling in small business out there—

Mr Bradbury interjecting—

So you are going to give them a carbon tax, and you are going to give business a mining tax. This is the sort of thinking we have to deal with. This is the absurd thinking and the economic illiteracy that is running our country. They are going to help the Europeans to lock our farmers out of their markets. They are going to help the Europeans spend our borrowed money—every cent of that money they give to the Europeans will be borrowed money—and that will be used to help subsidise their farmers to lock our own farmers out of Europe. This is just unbelievable.

But the biggest criticism that we have with this government—and we have had it for a long time—is their refusal to acknowledge the vulnerability of our economy. All of that vulnerability is not their fault, but they will not even acknowledge the vulnerability that is not even their own fault.

This is why there is a crisis of confidence. People know that there is something afoot—that there are dark clouds out there. People know that we are totally reliant on the pollyanna assumptions that this government made in their budget estimations. People know that, if resource prices come off just 15 or 20 per cent, we will have more and more deficits and higher and higher interest rates. People know this. They know that jobs will go backwards. People are concerned about losing their jobs. The trend is there, yet this government will not acknowledge the vulnerability of our economy. They refuse to act to restore the economic resilience that they inherited. Despite the mining boom, we have seen growth of debt—the third fastest in the developed world. There are only the economic powerhouses of Iceland and—

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