Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw, Deputy Speaker. The reality of their approach to the economy is that there is a vast difference between what they said before the election and what they are doing now. Now they want to eliminate the debt ceiling on the national credit card, an extraordinary proposition from people who told Australians they wanted less debt and not more. They said less debt, then they said double the debt, and then they said, 'Let her rip.' They said, 'Open for business and open the books,' and now they say, 'Open the floodgates and open the throttle.' From 'Sloppy Joe' to 'Jelly-back Joe,' from Jekyll to Hyde, in record time. They said they would spend less and then the Treasurer gave away $12 billion in two weeks without explanation in the case of the RBA giveaway and without justification when it came to ripping off middle Australia to fund superannuation tax breaks for 16,000 wealthy Australians.

Now they are in bed with the Greens on economic policy, just like they were in bed with the Greens on the Malaysian people swap. And now the debt emergency has become a credibility emergency for a new Treasurer. No wonder the member for New England is regarded as the real Treasurer on that side of the House. The member for North Sydney is unable to utter a word that is not written and authorised by the National Party or funded by Gina Reinhart. The charitable view is that the now Treasurer did not give a moment's thought to any of this before he got the job, that in four years as shadow Treasurer he did not get around to forming a view on any of the important economic and fiscal issues. We saw a bit of evidence of that today as he wandered around whingeing and whining about the national accounts, all of the excuses and political lines that we get from him in the absence of any credible analysis of the national accounts.

That is the charitable view. There is a more sinister interpretation that the Australian people need to be aware of what this is all about. Opening the spending floodgates now, shovelling money to the RBA and the wealthiest in our community, blowing out the deficit is all about one thing and one thing only: constructing a budget emergency of their own, creating an excuse for the swinging axe that will come when the 'Commission of Cuts' reports. It is an axe that will hit Middle Australia hard if their cuts to the schoolkids bonus and low-income super contributions are anything to go by—a preview of the nastiness to come.

This Treasurer comes in here all puffed up, full of self-congratulation, so proud of himself, always going for the cheap laugh over the hard yards. If those opposite think we would give a limitless credit card— (Time expired)

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