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

I have a few points to make following the intervention by the member for Lyne. I am almost in agreement with him: the fiscal environment—that is, the government's budget—is meant to be in good shape. However, while the member for Lyne was briefed on the mining tax and therefore may have a better understanding than any of us have about just how much revenue the mining tax is actually raising, I suspect that it will raise hardly a dollar—though I would be happy to facilitate the member for Lyne's disclosing to the House how much money the government thinks it is going to make from the mining tax. I also suspect that the fiscal environment is quite poor, because the government, whilst it is promising a surplus, is failing to deliver one. When the government runs out of money, it turns to new taxes and on-the-run expenditure cuts, and that is when you see the true state of the underlying structural deficit.

It is amazing, isn't it, that as soon as the member for Lyne gets to his feet—whooshka!—next to him rushes the Leader of the House ready to be in his ear: 'Don't go wrong. Don't let us go.' The member for Lyne only needs to get on his feet, and he gets the full attention of the Leader of the House and minister for transport. If only those people who are advocates of a second airport in the Sydney basin could get the very same reaction from the minister for transport.

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