Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We know that 72 hours ago it shifted from a $12 billion deficit to a $17 billion deficit. If we are going to be serious and look older Australians in the eye and say, 'We can afford to pay for aged care,' and if the government wants to be serious about saying that they can meet the challenges of an ageing population when we shift from nine per cent of the population being over 65 to 20 per cent of the population being over 65, then I say that it is crucial that this government tells us how much debt and deficit they have racked up over the past five years. The reckless spending by the Labor Party must stop. For as long as Labor keeps spending and borrowing and spending and borrowing, the simple reality is that the Australian population in decades to come will have to shoulder the burden. And it is unfair not only for older Australians but for new Australians. The consequences of Labor's policies affect both ends of the spectrum. It is young Australians who will have to shoulder this debt and deficit burden for decades to come. It is young Australians who are in schools today who will have to carry the heavy tax burden as a consequence of Labor's reckless spending over the past five years. Older Australians will also pay the price.

While the Labor Party can have packages of bills entitled 'Living Longer Living Better', while they can claim to be introducing $500 million of new spending, the simple reality is that this is not new money that has come from fiscal prudence; it is money that is being borrowed from abroad. That is entirely consistent with an approach that the Labor Party has had over the last five years that has seen them borrow money from aboard to spend locally on all sorts of projects that they deem to be warranted. Unlike for much of the spending, there is some support for the Living Longer Living Better package and the need to make sure that older Australians are well cared for. But there has been so much waste from the Labor Party. Who can forget pink batts? Who could forget the blow-outs on border protection? We have seen so many blow-outs under this Labor government—

See this speech in context