George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will withdraw, Mr Deputy Speaker. We had the Leader of the House here yesterday telling us the mining tax was going to fund the Peak Downs Highway, an important project for the region that I live in but, according to the budget, the work will actually start before the mining tax revenue kicks in. He goes on to say that the mining tax is going to fund the Mackay ring road study, which has already been done at a cost of $10 million. So the government cannot claim the mining tax is going to fund something that has happened in the past, unless the minister has a TARDIS. I am eagerly waiting next week's episode to see if the mining tax is going to fund the Sydney Harbour Bridge; it is only eighty years old.

The only way the government could create a good economy is to start with great one. You only have to look at Australia's gross debt, which is third only to Iceland and Ireland, to see how they have managed to do that. Imagine what a real government could have done from the position this economy was in when Labor took over. For a start, there was money in the bank, not a record debt. Thanks to Labor's reckless spending, Australia is now forced to pay $6 billion a year in interest on the debt they have created. Coincidently it is estimated the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which we support, would cost around $6 billion a year to implement. Labor is trying to create this illusion that it is going to fund the NDIS and the coalition is not. Well, if Labor supported it it would be in its budget this year. On this side of the House we support the NDIS, and we have the ability to fix the economy so that it can become a reality. In asking for transparency we ask for truth, because we have had a very, very long time where we have had exactly the opposite from this government.

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