Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

For a motion such as this to be put up by a government such as this smacks of hypocrisy, it reeks of negativity and it is unnecessarily unhelpful at a time when this parliament could and should be using its valuable time discussing matters of importance to Australia. Today we should be finding a solution to the illegal boat problem, given that we have already had 4,568 people land on our shores this year and authorities are presently undertaking the grim task of finding up to 90 bodies in the latest tragedy. We should be talking about constructive ways to help the taxpayers of this nation—working families; regional families.

Instead, Labor is trying to muckrake, and the trashing of the New South Wales government continues. In recent weeks, without justification and without warning, federal Labor has gone on an all out attack against the state coalition. Not content with trying to smear the federal opposition at every opportunity, Labor has turned its sights on the Barry O'Farrell-Andrew Stoner Liberal-National government, which has been in office only since March last year after 16 years of the worst, the most inefficient and the most corrupt government this nation has ever known.

Pensioners always need more to keep pace with the increasing costs of living. We did our best as a coalition from 1996 to 2007, yet Labor, by racking up huge debt and deficits, has not helped pensioners since taking over the treasury bench under Kevin Rudd, who was unfairly ousted two years ago yesterday. To suggest that Labor—under either the member for Griffith or, since the 2010 coup, under the member for Lalor—has done better than the Howard years is simply false. The current Prime Minister said Labor was the party of truth sellers. Not so. But do not take my word for it. The member for Parramatta, instead of peddling misleading motions with mischievous intent, ought to be out asking pensioners what they think. Certainly the pensioners I listen to tell me they are doing it tough lately.

This government is in no position to lecture anyone about what the Howard government did or did not do when it has overseen four record budget deficits, when it is looking at net public debt for 2012-13 of $143.2 billion, when the interest on its debt for the next financial year will be $12 billion and when taxes for the coming 12 months will be up by $39 billion.

Australian pensioners—the aged, the disabled, the unemployed and the underemployed—are very nervous right now. They are deeply worried about where this country is heading. They are anxious about how they will afford groceries, petrol or the power bill. They are concerned about how they will pay their rent. And they have reason to be upset.

Federal Labor inherited a massive surplus in 2007 but has sent Australia a long, long way into the red—so much so, it will take years to undo the damage. Conversely, the New South Wales coalition was left with a mess after 16 years of Labor government under Bob Carr, Maurice Iemma, Nathan Rees and Kristina Keneally—16 years of Sussex Street factionalism that saddled New South Wales with an economic malaise the pieces of which no incoming government should have to pick up and repair. But the O'Farrell-Stoner government and its dedicated and enterprising team are getting on with the job of making New South Wales No. 1 again. The state coalition has made some tough calls because it has had to do so. Balancing the books is the coalition way—at both state and Commonwealth levels. Labor governments are renowned for out-of-control spending like there is no tomorrow because they know they will not pay it back—prudent, resourceful coalition governments would do that and the hardworking taxpayers will pick up the tab as they always do.

This discrediting of what the New South Wales coalition is trying to achieve after it was burdened with such a debt, such a big clean-up to do, such an atrocious state of affairs, is typical of this federal Labor government. If it can see a chance to politically point-score, it will take it. Is it doing so because it hopes it will save seats in New South Wales at the next election? Is it doing so because the Sussex Street powerbrokers have demanded it be so? Is it doing so because it likes to meddle with the truth? Probably all of the above. Next Sunday the biggest slug Australian pensioners will face comes into effect. Not surprisingly, Labor cannot say the words 'carbon tax'. Its members call it 'carbon pricing'—because they have to. They have been given their riding orders from Sussex Street and the Greens, to whom they are beholden. The carbon tax will not save the planet but it will make everyday living so much more expensive for the pensioners of the Riverina and pensioners right across Australia. It is a disgrace, and the carbon tax will be repealed when the federal coalition wins office at the next election.

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