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

I second the motion. Standing orders must be suspended in order to get answers out of this government. I found it absolutely extraordinary: very simple questions were asked in question time; the government refused to answer them. When the Treasurer was asked whether he was going to raid the Future Fund to pay for the $120 billion of unfunded promises, he typically obfuscated. He did not obfuscate yesterday when the member for Bass asked him in the caucus whether he was going to double the Medicare levy—he said 'no'. He did not obfuscate when we asked him in this place whether he was going to support the reintroduction of death duties, which was identified by the Henry report. He said—eventually—'no'.

When we asked him today whether he was going to break open the Future Fund—the last remaining resort of funding for Australia's future—the Treasurer turned around and did not answer the question. He did not answer the question because the government is now desperate. Standard & Poor's has identified in a media report that the deficit this year is estimated to be over $20 billion. The government claims it is going to have a surplus. The Treasurer said he would have a surplus, because that helps to take some of the upward pressure off interest rates. That is why he said it was important to have a surplus.

It is not just falling revenues that make it urgent that this matter to be dealt with; it is the government's unfunded spending. To shore up the Prime Minister's leadership the government has committed to over $120 billion of new spending initiatives. We know about the deal that it is trying to reach with the missos union. We know equally that it is probably the case that the Prime Minister has been scared off giving a $1½ billion a year subsidy to private sector workers because the matter leaked from the Labor caucus yesterday. We also know that the government is going to avoid making that commitment until after MYEFO, which is expected to come out in the next few weeks. We know all of that. Why? Because we know that the carbon tax was not in the budget in 2011 and then came out only a few weeks later with a multibillion dollar deficit in the carbon tax package. We know the trickery that this government is up to. It needs to be held to account. We are trying to hold it to account.

This is an incompetent government. It is typically Labor: it is big spending, big promises, no delivery and taxpayers paying. When in Queensland and New South Wales you get a coalition government following the reckless indifference of terrible Labor governments that left a legacy of debt and deficit, this mob then shoots the ambulance driver trying to rescue the patient. That is what those opposite do. They are hypocrites. They shed crocodile tears about public servant job losses, yet the Treasurer is sacking 3,000 people this year. What a hypocrite.

We need to suspend standing orders because we and the Australian people want answers. We want answers to the questions on where the money is coming from. We want the truth about the government's plan on taxes. We know the promise that there would be 'no carbon tax under the government I lead'. How can you believe them after an election? You cannot trust Labor before an election and you sure as hell cannot trust them after an election. This is typical Labor: debt and deficit. They are recklessly indifferent to the truth. They are not being honest with the Australian people. It is reliant upon us to hold this mob to account on behalf of Australian families, on behalf of Australian small-business people, on behalf of the people who have to pay the bills for Labor's reckless spending. We want answers. We want them now. The Australian people want the truth about the $120 billion black hole.

Mr Pyne interjecting—

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