Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Oh, you don't want me to release those documents, mate! I tell ya: there won't be a rock that is big enough for you to hide under!

You don't want me to release those documents. I don't want to do what Labor does and use the Treasury and the RBA and others as a shield and a sword. But I’ll tell you what: the Secretary of the Treasury is going to appear before estimates next week and the Governor of the Reserve Bank can appear before the Economics Committee in this place—with Labor Party members on it—and go your hardest! Go your hardest about the Reserve Bank's $8.8 billion and go your hardest about the debt limit, because it is Labor's debt. There is no excuse.

The world did not stop on election day—it is just that the sun came out. That is the only thing. The world did not stop turning and we cannot turn back the ship of Labor's debt immediately. We cannot do that. Do you know why we cannot do it? It is because we would need to close down—immediately—payments for the payment system and payments in relation to welfare. We would need to close Medicare straight away. We would need to start closing the government. Why? Because the debt limit is being hit. We are going to reach the debt limit on around 12 December.

So if the Labor Party wants to oppose this bill, let me be very blunt: we will stare you down on this. Why? It is because the debt limit is being hit on 12 December. And I want to know if the Labor Party thinks it is so heroic to go down the path of closing down government services, because we may need to exceed that debt limit. I want to know if that is what they really believe.

Madam Speaker, this is a game they are going to lose. They are going to lose because they are responsible for it. The difference between the Tea Party and the Labor Party on opposing debt-limit increases is that the Tea Party did not create it, the Labor Party did—the debt. They are the ones responsible. It is quite telling. This does not come as a surprise.

Neil Mitchell, on 3AW, asked the former Treasurer Wayne Swan on Wednesday, 15 May 2013: 'Will whoever wins the next election need to raise the debt level?' Wayne Swan said: 'That will be a matter for them.' Everyone look around you. We are surrounded by 'them'. We have to deal with this.

You had a Treasurer who did not have the guts to front it up, who was delivering a budget that actually increased the debt beyond the debt limit and he did not have the ticker to come into this place and deal with it. Now we have another former Labor Treasurer—who never had the ticker to own up to it—who delivered an economic statement that took the debt to $370 billion and with an increase in the capacity needed for the AOFM took it to $430 billion. He never had the ticker to come up and deal with it. We will, because we have to clean up the Labor Party mess. You people have no shame. There is no sense of embarrassment about dealing with this mess, but we will deal with it in the national interest—because we must.

I know whenever the Labor Party see a figure, they feel the need to have it. Here's a tip: the debt limit is not a debt target. You do not have to do your best to get there. The Labor Party think that a limit is about spending it all and more. I would not want to be your bankers.

See this speech in context