Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, he did. He effectively said that. I am sure he did. Out of all of that, he is now running a hundred miles away. I want to remind the people of Australia what the Treasurer said just a few months ago about getting the budget back to black—this was in the budget speech. He said: 'We'll be back in the black by 2012-13, on time, as promised. The alternative—meandering back to surplus—would compound the pressures in our economy and push up the cost of living for pensioners and working people.' I am sorry that the Assistant Treasurer is not here. He is the one who said, 'Well, that wasn't really a commitment, that was a guiding principle.' It was the Prime Minister who said that that is 'an objective'. It was the Treasurer who said, almost, that it is a wish and a hope and a prayer.

Now they have found religion. This is after Labor inherited a $20 billion surplus, more than $45 billion in the bank. They inherited an economy with no net debt, and over just four years this government has accrued $150 billion of deficits, or more than $200 billion of gross debt, and the government expects us to believe that they are going to serve up a sustainable surplus on the back of real budget cuts. Let us be very clear. The coalition will hold the government to account on the issue that matters: government spending. They used to talk about the last year of the Howard government as being a big-spending government. They said we spent so much of that mining revenue that there was nothing left. There was: a Future Fund, a surplus in the bank and no net debt. But they said we were a big-spending government. We were at 22.9 per cent of GDP. That is what the federal government under John Howard had in its last year: 22.9 per cent of GDP.

The next year, under Labor, it went from 22.9 to 25.2 per cent. The next year it was 26.2. The next year it was 25.2 and then 24.5 and then 23.9. Nowhere in the forward estimates does it at anytime show that the Labor Party spends less than the last year of the Howard government, which the Labor Party claims was profligate. And that does not include the carbon tax. It does not include the $31 billion of expenditure on the carbon tax, which, mind you, is only going to raise $27 billion.

How can the Labor Party introduce a new tax and leave the budget worse off? Only the Labor Party can do that! They are introducing a carbon tax that leaves the budget $4 billion worse off and they are introducing a mining tax that is leaving the budget more than $6 billion worse off.

When it comes to the mining tax—I am sorry our friends in the media are not here to follow this up because I think it is a pretty important point—not only has the Treasurer claimed that the royalty increases in New South Wales and Western Australia do not exist, but specifically in relation to New South Wales he said that the New South Wales budget papers say that the increase in royalties will be paid by those companies that are not liable to pay the mining tax. In fact, the budget papers say that the royalty increases will be paid by those that are liable to pay the mining tax. So he does not even understand the issue.

In terms of the $8 billion net of the $11.1 billion that is expected to be raised by this mining tax, one of the biggest miners of iron ore in Australia says that they are not going to pay a dollar. What's more, they took out full-page ads saying that the Prime Minister's mining tax does not add up. They have advised their shareholders—with significant legal ramifications under the Corporations Act and the listing rules of the Australian Stock Exchange, including the risk of significant fines for the company and disqualifications for directors that deliberately mislead their shareholders—and Fortescue Mining has taken out nation-wide ads to say that they expect to pay between zero and $20 million in total mining tax over the next three years.

Where is the money coming from to pay for $14 billion of expenditure? Labor introduce a tax and then go and spend it all. But they do not just spend it all; they spend a whole lot more on things such as the GP superclinic that failed in Redcliffe. You must be proud of that, sister!

Ms Roxon interjecting—

You must have had your hands all over that Redcliffe GP Super Clinic. But it gets better! The Labor Party always promise but never deliver. In 2010-11 they said they would have a budget deficit of $40 billion and it turned out to be nearly $50 billion. In 2011-12 they said they would have a budget deficit of $13 billion; it turned out to be $22.5 billion. This does not surprise because the government keep using enhanced figures. I refer to an interview I had with Laurie Oakes on 12 May 2009 in which I said:

No, no one’s treating that seriously, Laurie. Both the International Monetary Fund, which the Government is fond of quoting, and the Reserve Bank, which the Government is fond of quoting, both said it will be a slow recovery and yet in the budget papers they are projecting not only a trend growth but above trend growth and not just for two years but their assumptions of getting out of deficit and debt is based on seven years, an unprecedented growth period in Australia’s history.

Laurie Oakes replied:

But it’s Treasury that produces the figures saying that we’ll be growing at the 4.5 per cent again within a couple of years. Are you saying Treasury is wrong or have they been leaned on?

I said:

Well we’ll be very interested. We’ll ask a lot of questions about this because Treasury’s assumptions are not in accordance with what the Reserve Bank or the IMF are saying.

In financial crises, as the IMF and the Reserve Bank said, the recovery is almost always slower. But this mob, with a desperation to get to surplus that their bodies cannot match, turn around and expect—they set it in the budget forecast—4½ per cent growth. That is well above the trend of three per cent. They said that that is how they are going to surf back—on the basis of higher revenues.

Now we have the Treasurer saying, 'Hey, guys, sorry. Revenues are not quite what we forecast.' What a surprise! Growth is not what they forecast. Do you know what this government is doing? This government, as usual, is playing games with the truth. This government, as usual, is not telling the truth when it comes to the real impact on the Australian economy of the events in Europe and the continuing uncertainty that it is going to have on capital markets. At the same time, this government is not telling the truth about the state of the budget. We have now had a series of reminders that this is a government that gets the numbers wrong. On the BER there was a $1.7 billion blow-out—up to $8 million wasted. On pink batts there was $2.4 billion wasted. There were $900 cheques going to people who were dead or living overseas. How did that stimulate the Australian economy?

There was the laptops in schools program, which the minister for education was just boasting about. How good is that program? It wasted $1.4 billion. In the solar homes program there was an $850 million blow-out and the program was cancelled. For the green loans program there was $300 million wasted and the program was cancelled. There was the $4 billion broadband network—$36 billion and growing.

The fundamental point—Labor has found religion!—was given to us by the Minister for Finance and Deregulation last week. I felt as though I was listening to myself, apart from the fact that she is female and in the Labor Party! She said:

... when you have a sensible, credible fiscal strategy, you give the Reserve Bank the room to move on interest rates.

That is what we have been saying.

All these promises that Labor has been making over the last few months involve more spending. This is what we are going to look for when MYEFO comes out. We know that there is at least a $2½ billion to $4 billion hole in the mining tax revenue and associated expenditure. We know that not only are people claiming that they are not going to pay the mining tax, but the government have to rebate royalties of $3 billion from New South Wales and Western Australia.

We also now know that the National Disability Insurance Scheme which the government has promised to introduce will cost $1.5 billion over the forward estimates. That has been announced since the budget in May. Net costs over time will increase to $6½ billion a year. We will be looking for that money when MYEFO comes out.

The government has now confirmed, in answer to a question from my colleague and friend the member for Cook, that they no longer consider, for budget purposes, the Malaysia solution to be in place. Therefore, they now have to account properly for asylum-seeker blow-out costs. In the May budget this year there was a $1.75 billion blow-out. That was for one year. Now the boats are coming and they have to account in the forward estimates for the failure of the Malaysia solution.

The government has also said that there is going to be a $2 billion increase in pay over six years for 150,000 community sector workers. But they have neglected to add that the states have to match that and that the states have now refused to do so. In foreign aid, the government has said that it maintains its commitment to the 0.5 per cent of GNI increase in foreign aid. This will increase foreign aid significantly over the next few years and may well cost $6.7 billion.

All these additional government spending commitments need to be funded. Of course, Labor always play games. We know that they have already moved funding into this year. They moved funding into this year from next year so that they could get it out the door, make the deficit worse this year, claim that it is the European financial crisis and so reduce their expenditure for just one year.

The bottom line is that Labor does not have the ticker to take the hard yards, Labor does not have the ticker to reduce government expenditure and Labor does not have the ticker to tell Australians that we have to live within our means and then to live within their means as a government. The bottom line is that we are going to hear lots of words about deferral of projects, delay of projects and urgently needed projects being brought forward, but we know about Labor that all you can be sure of is that there will be more regulation and more tax—and there is not a country in the world which has become more prosperous with more tax. (Time expired)

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