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

This is a situation not unlike a family that was spending $1,000 a month living within its means on groceries and then they have a brain snap and for two months they increase their spending on groceries by 20 per cent to $1,200. Then they increase by only one per cent for the next two months. They are still well over $1,200 and still over $200 a month more than they can afford. This is what we have got with our prodigal son, the Treasurer. The prodigal son has spent all the money. He has gone on a spending spree—and the waste!—and we are still left with the bill. He is still spending at that rate. This is the only difference between the real prodigal son and the Treasurer: the Treasurer is still spending at the rate he was when he was out on the town, when he was spreading his largesse around cities, when he was acting in an irresponsible and wanton fashion, when he was giving in to all sorts of inducements.

This is why the government needs to release its crisis mini-budget—its Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook—and why it needs to be done in this chamber. We need to have this level of scrutiny, not a few one-liners in the media that night about fiscal consolidation and fiscal discipline. We need to be able to expose the real facts about this government's spending patterns. These are the things that have spooked households all over the country. This is why savings amongst households is above 13½ per cent. They are fearful of what is lying ahead. They can see dark clouds outside of Australia. They are dark clouds we have got no control of—I acknowledge that.

But when you see dark clouds—when you see threats—you take action to mitigate the dangers. If you see threats you do what you can to mitigate and to lessen the dangers.

Not this government. We have the prodigal son, who has gone off and spent and spent, and is still spending at the rate that he was when he was off on his wanton ways. This has led to the crisis of confidence not only in households, which are saving like there is no tomorrow, but it has also led to the lack of investment. There is a lot of money in companies' balance sheets—they are not spending. Outside of mining, they are not spending. Manufacturing has lost 135,000 jobs and small business has lost 300,000 jobs.

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