Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to follow my esteemed colleague from Moreton, and to speak on the member for Fraser's motion on policy costings. The member for Moreton has spent a good deal of his contribution to this debate touching on the apparent $11 billion black hole in the coalition's costings for the last federal budget. If it were there, I would say it pales into insignificance compared to what we have seen this government achieve over the past three years, let alone compared to the past five years.

We have seen over the past five years this government rack up some $147 billion plus in deficits, and I think it is a tad hypocritical for the government to be lecturing us on policy costings when they have access to the full resources of Treasury yet they still cannot get their figures right year in, year out. Just for a bit of edification: the total government call on present and future taxpayers for the year finished was nearly 26 per cent of GDP. This was higher than in any year of the previous coalition government. The average over the term of the coalition government, over the 10 or 11 years, was some 23.4 per cent.

So I think we need to reflect on the facts of this debate. The facts are that the coalition, for 10 years of government, demonstrated good fiscal rectitude in ensuring that the Commonwealth's finances were managed in a consistent and well-considered manner for the benefit of all Australians. We have seen in the past five years of this government's effort that it has just gone on a spending spree with no consideration for the fact that, at some point in the future, this debt—now, in gross terms, some $263 billion—will need to be repaid. In looking at this motion by the member for Fraser, I think the government first needs to take a leaf out of its own book and get its own budget and policy costings in order. It is only the coalition which has a demonstrated track record of being able to actually achieve that.

Debate adjourned.

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