Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Hansard source

Here they are again, Mr Deputy Secretary—another example of the lack of respect for debate in this House. Their incompetence—

Government members interjecting—

Now they are laughing. People and families are worried sick and they are laughing. It is a great joke. The stimulus came in too big and too late. The Reserve Bank reduced interest rates by 4¼ per cent. It put tens of thousands of dollars into people's pockets, as it should have. Also, we saw the Australian dollar drop to US60c in the first quarter of 2009. Those opposite never refer to these sorts of developments.

We saw the biggest trade surplus in the country's history three months after the global financial crisis. We saw the biggest drop in interest rates in such a short time in our history. By the time the government passed the $87 billion stimulus package in that May budget—and most of it was spent not that year but two or three years later—Australia was coming out of it. Why? It was because of those two automatic stabilisers and because this government inherited an economy which was in the best shape of any economy in the world. They went into this without any debt. The rest of the world was wallowing in hundreds of billions of dollars of debt. In Australia, we had $70 billion in the bank—no debt federally and no debt at a state level. There was a ratio of zero debt to GDP. Now we have 11 per cent national debt and 11 per cent state debt. We have a 22 per cent debt-to-GDP ratio and we have the fastest growing debt in Australia's history. That is why we are vulnerable. That is why people are waking up at 2.30 anxious about their jobs. That is why people are saving at 10 per cent when historically they were saving at one or two per cent. People are frightened and business is nervous. Business is not prepared to make decisions or to create jobs.

The government inherited a four per cent unemployment rate—unheard of in history. They inherited all these things and that is how we got through the global financial crisis. What happened nine months after the global financial crisis? This government started to spend like drunken sailors. They said it saved jobs. Why did the Reserve Bank increase interest rates while the government was increasing government expenditure? The Reserve Bank was trying to cool down the economy. That is what they were doing.

This government was inappropriately fuelling the economy with massive doses of wasteful spending. It was not even good spending. It was not cutting the costs for business and helping to preserve jobs. It was spent on pink batts and school halls that cost double the price they should have and in many cases were not needed. It was spent on ridiculous things like paying dead people $900. This is the incompetence of those opposite and that is why people have lost confidence in them.

Now we see that at seven o'clock tonight there will be a ballot. That is what they are all concerned about—a ballot at seven o'clock tonight to see who is running this country. For God's sake, this is unacceptable. This government are so incompetent. Here we are, a month or two from an election—we will not know until seven o'clock tonight whether we are one month or two months from an election, I suspect. But here we are, with this government have been so consumed with themselves over the last few months rather than the major issues: the structural deficits, the fall off in commodity prices, the threat to jobs and the fact that mining is coming off yet the rest of the economy is not picking up in response. These are the things that are worrying people. These are things that this government are not focusing on.

We have an agenda. We will get rid of the carbon tax. We will get the budget back in the black. We will stop the boats. With that agenda, we have a plan for the future. If this government is re-elected, it is a recipe for more and more incompetence and a greater lack of confidence and concern within the community. We need an election and we need it now.

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