Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

You would have to be very smart to do that! Not only did he do that, he then made sure that the government spent money based on the fact that he thought the tax was going to raise revenue.

Today in question time I think we heard the quote to end all quotes, from the Treasurer. He accused us, on this side—and our policies—of stealing from the future. The Treasurer who inherited a budget in surplus with no net debt, who has now delivered us a budget which has a structural deficit which will reach over $16 billion in the coming years and who has presided over net debt reaching over $150 billion and gross debt of over $300 billion, had the audacity to accuse us on this side of stealing from the future.

That is the quote to end all quotes from this Treasurer. His incompetency knows no bounds; we now have the final proof of that. This government has done nothing for the future of this country, and we on our side—if the Australian people have faith and confidence in us and vote us into power on 14 September—are going to have an enormous job to repair the finances of this country.

I was pleased to hear the shadow Treasurer today talk on this MPI, because he will be the one who will have to turn the finances of this nation around, and he will need the support not only of all of us in this place but of the Australian people. The mess that this government has produced is considerable. The realisation of that fact is coming not only from businesspeople but also from economists from the Labor side of government.

I say to the shadow Treasurer: we will all be behind you if the Australian people place their faith in us. We know that the carbon tax has to go. We know that the mining tax has to go. We know that both regulation green tape and red tape need to be stripped out of the Australian business community. We know that we have to get the Australian economy growing. We know that we have to get employment in this country growing. We know that you will not be able to deliver a budget like the Treasurer did this year which says, 'It is a budget for employment growth,' yet when you look at the figures unemployment will go up. We know that you will not be able to say that you have produced a budget for growth when you look at the details of the budget and find that economic growth will actually decline.

We know that you are going to have to be honest with the Australian people. We know that you are going to have to restore the finances of this country to where they were prior to 2007. We have full confidence that you will be able to do that. You can have full confidence that all those on this side will support you in what you need to do. The only way we are going to turn the finances of this country around is to get Australia growing again, to get our cost base down, to get our businesses employing people, to get consumer confidence back and to get business confidence back. That is how we are going to grow this country and that is how we are going to make sure that we remain internationally competitive in a globalised world. We understand the importance of a globalised world and the fact that you have to keep your costs down if you are going to compete. Businesses now not only need to export; they have to be able to compete with imports. They are the facts of a globalised world. That is why we have to become competitive again. The Gillard government has failed us on that account, but I have full confidence that a coalition government if elected will not fail the Australian people on this.

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