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

If we are the Philistines then I guess I am a bit of a Goliath man, but that was no David performance. That was not even a pebble of a speech. I simply say this: spending is very, very easy. It is so easy that even Labor can do it. What they cannot do is get value for money. And they cannot stop spending the money—even in the wake of four record deficit budgets. Spending is an addiction and, like any addict, this government are in denial. They simply cannot accept that they have got a problem. They try to justify their drunken-sailor approach to spending by comparing themselves with Greece and Spain. If an alcoholic can name someone who drinks more than them, it does not mean they are not an alcoholic. Labor try to justify their spending habit by saying that debt is nothing to worry about. We have been told by the Treasurer that asking to extend the credit card limit by another $50 billion to $300 billion is 'no big deal'.

I wonder if the Treasurer's counterpart in the Greek parliament ever described the Greek debt level as 'no big deal'. If this is no big deal, how would he describe the debt ceiling when Labor came to government? It was just $75 billion and it was not even needed. But in 2009 the Treasurer increased the debt ceiling to a temporary $200 billion. Remember that? It was going to be temporary. He cited 'special circumstances'. In the last budget he increased it permanently to $250 billion, and now we are told that we are going to be increasing it to $300 billion and it is 'no big deal'.

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