Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Deputy Chairman , Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Hansard source

We have this first debate of this first day of the parliament this year appropriately on another major broken promise from this government. When we last sat, the Treasurer—who is not present for this debate, as usual—was still insisting that his budget would be in surplus. As the shadow Treasurer pointed out during question time and at the beginning of this debate, the Treasurer, together with the Prime Minister, promised on 500 occasions that the budget would be in surplus this year. Before he departs, I would remind the previous speaker that he gleefully jumped to his feet the day after the budget on a tax law amendment bill, from memory, and talked about how important it was to get the budget back to surplus.

We have had a lot of obfuscation from those opposite, but let me suggest that the previous speaker, who was an economist before entering this place, knows in his heart of hearts that this government's approach to the budget is dysfunctional. He, along with the Treasurer, promised that the budget would return to surplus. I think he believed the Treasurer. But what the Australian people now know is that the only thing you can believe about any government promise is that it will not be delivered.

We started this parliament with the Prime Minister announcing that she would deliver a carbon tax that before the election she pledged would never occur. All of last year, we heard the Treasurer and the Prime Minister proclaiming that they would deliver a budget surplus. 'No ifs, no buts'—that is a quote. All of those quotes, without any wriggle room, were repeatedly defiant. All we know is that, while they were still insisting in the dying days of last year's parliament there would be a surplus, they were preparing to ditch the pledge. That is why they brought forward the mid-year economic forecasts to October. That is why the announcement by the Treasurer was made once he could avoid the scrutiny of this parliament; it was made in the days leading up to Christmas.

If you look at this government's approach, it is not only its fiscal and economic mismanagement that concerns the Australian people, who pay the price for it every day; it is this government's deliberate approach of breaking promises and its looseness with the truth at every opportunity. There have been so many broken promises and so many solemn pledges, but this budget surplus pledge that was broken before Christmas will sum up and define this government right through until election day, an election that was called just a few days ago.

When you look at the words of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer—their defiant words—it is quite clear that the public should judge them on two criteria. The public should judge them harshly on their broken promise and they should judge them according to their own words: 'You can't run this country if you can't manage its budget.' That was a proclamation from the Prime Minister on 14 April 2011. You have heard the other proclamations, day in, day out. Every member of the Liberal and National parties has sat here and heard the Treasurer and the Prime Minister every day promise a budget surplus and outline the necessity for it in terms of budget management, in terms of reducing cost-of-living pressures, in terms of budget responsibility.

All the time, those opposite had their fingers crossed behind their backs, because, when they make a promise and they cannot meet it, they push it out a year. We have seen it before on their budget management. Straight after the last election, they said that, for the financial year just gone, the budget would be $12 billion in deficit. By May 2011, it was $22 billion. By budget night, it was $44 billion. So it was a blow-out from—let's be generous and forget the $12 billion—a $22 billion forecast to $44 billion, in one year. And now the government expect the Australian people to believe anything they say on the budget. As I said last year in one of the final MPI debates of the year: with that sort of record for accuracy, if Wayne Swan were competing in the archery, the only safe place to watch would be on television. After that speech, the member for Bennelong pointed out that it would be equally safe to stand in front of the target, which he was quite right about!

But the serious point of all this is that the Australian people pay for Labor's failure. Labor's budget failure and budget deceit here in Canberra are paid for by families and small businesses right across Australia. As the shadow Treasurer pointed out, they are paid for in the net interest cost of that debt—$7 billion a year, just to keep it. That is to keep it; that is not to pay a dollar off. The latest projection is $147 billion—when they started with $45 billion in cash in the bank. As the shadow Treasurer pointed out, it is the families of Australia, the children of today, who will have to pay it back tomorrow. Those opposite expect the public to believe that, with their track record of mismanagement and deceit, they can be relied upon by the Australian public. I will tell you what the Australian people and the small businesses of Australia can rely on from the government. If the government have their way, they will do more of what they have done in the last four years. That is the only rock-solid certainty.

Five years ago—a Prime Minister ago—those opposite, including the minister at the table, the Minister for Trade and Competitiveness, were settling into a new government and a new parliament. Just months earlier, the then Prime Minister, the member for Griffith, had said, 'This reckless spending must stop.' Nearly $200 billion ago, he said, 'This reckless spending must stop'! I think those on this side of the House would agree with me when I say that, if you look back at every statement made by those opposite in the lead-up to the 2007 election, from the member for Griffith being a 'fiscal conservative' right through, it is very hard to find a single statement that turned out to be true. But there is one, and it was made by the member for Kingsford Smith, who said to a journalist, in an unguarded moment, 'Once we get in, we'll just change it all.' Hasn't he proved to be right!

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