Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is great to be here with you in the chair, Mr Deputy Speaker Cheeseman. I rise to speak on the motion moved by Dr Andrew Leigh—the Young Economist of the year in 2011—about bipartisan support for the Parliamentary Budget Office. I note that the member for Lyons is in the chamber as well, and I thank him for his contribution on this important checkpoint for democracy. Like the previous speaker, the former Attorney-General, I well remember the last election and that incredible $11 billion black hole. We had the incredible situation where the accounting firm faced the legal equivalent of being struck off, basically: they were professionally reprimanded for the work that they did at the last minute, signing off on the dodgy figures delivered by the coalition before the last election.

Obviously we need to have an independent office that all sides of parliament can trust and that the Australian people can trust. As the current costing process shows, the opposition is out there crazily offering everything. It is not just the leaders; out in the electorates, the promises that are being made are incredible. We need to have them properly costed. I commend the member for Warringah for committing resolutely to $70 billion in cuts to services if elected. To put that in context: as the member for Gellibrand said, the health budget is $60 billion. So you are basically saying to health: 'We will have no health delivered for a year, and then there will be another $10 billion.' That is the sort of black hole that has to be cut.

That $70 billion black hole is an incredible black hole. Coming from Queensland, I have seen what happens when a government turns up and says, supposedly with a mandate, 'We are going to cut.' I come from Queensland, where nearly 15,000 jobs have been cut from the Public Service, and we have seen all of the accompanying damage caused to people when such front-line services are attacked. Let's put that $70 billion in context: it is the equivalent of cutting the age pension for three years. Mr Abbott has not backed away from it in any way, shape or form. That is why we need to have his costings put through the Parliamentary Budget Office: so that there can be a proper debate amongst all of the parties about properly costed policies, so that we can look at the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook and use that prism to determine whether their figures are dodgy or not, because we do not need a repeat of what happened in 2010.

We need Mr Abbott to say what he will do. He is committed to cutting the schoolkids bonus. He is committed to cutting anything associated with the mining tax, a mining tax that we know, and all Australia knows, is the appropriate price on our minerals. They can only be dug up once. It is a tax-collecting mechanism which will give benefits to the Australian community for the next 30, 40, 50 years.

The member for Goldstein said, on 18 August 2011:

The $70 billion is an indicative figure of the challenge we’ve got … if we start to impose some discipline we should be able to stop spending in the order of $70 billion …

Well, heaven help the people out there involved in delivering Commonwealth services. Heaven help the 20,000 public servants who are lined up by the opposition to sack, the 20,000 public servants who are out there doing the right thing by the Australian people, delivering services that are going to be in the crosshairs under the coalition if, heaven forbid, they get over the line on September 14.

Coming from Queensland, I have seen what happens. I have been looking for the press releases from federal Liberal and National party members of parliament from Queensland saying anything positive about or even criticising Premier Newman for the cuts that he has made. I know the member for Forde is reluctant to let things go through or slip past him. I have seen him on many occasions. But I cannot find on his web page any criticism of Premier Newman and what he has done to our electorates. The reality is that, if Mr Abbott comes in, trying to fill this $70 billion black hole, the people of Queensland and the people of Australia will suffer.

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