Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

It is incredible. The honourable member for Fadden is right today at least once. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and that was your moment, when you said it is incredible. Yes, it is amazing. The Howard government was found by the IMF to be the most profligate in Australian history. This is what we see from the current government being too small-minded and too mean-spirited to acknowledge the plaudits for the economic management of the previous government. We saw the Howard government be the highest-taxing government in Australian history and to be found by the IMF to be the most profligate. And 2012-13 saw the only contraction in nominal spending the budget has seen in more than 40 years as that spending was reduced, as it was always intended to be, as the need for stimulus receded—as was always planned by the previous Labor governments.

I saw a couple of weeks ago that Treasury's Executive Director Fiscal, Nigel Ray, told a Senate inquiry into the Commission of Audit that the government's balance sheet was in 'a relatively strong position, giving the government space to implement further stimulus if another global downturn required it'. He was answering the question about what would be done if a further global downturn, which is not predicted, did eventuate: did the government have room to respond? He made it clear that the budget is in a relatively strong position and that the government could respond if necessary.

We have got the coalition here engaging in yet further stunts. This very important bill, they say, will save a massive sum of $250,000 over the next four years—that is their big contribution to budget repair. The salary for a cabinet minister for one year they will save over four years. Streamlining the cabinet might be more effective. Then we have this Treasurer, who likes to huff and puff and beat his chest and fulminate about the age of entitlement, introducing a paid parental leave scheme which will cost $5 billion a year. That $250,000 will make a small contribution to the $5 billion. We have got the $20 million bill on taxpayers for marriage counselling services and a government which is intent—instead of implementing an economic plan, instead of actually doing something about the 54,000 jobs that have been lost on their watch, instead of developing a plan to counteract the decline in mining investment across the country—only on engaging in these stunts. We are not having it. If the government expects the Labor Party to walk away from the proud economic record which saw Australia through the global financial crisis, they have another think coming.

I move the second reading amendment in my name, which reads:

That all the words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading the House is of the opinion that the $900 payments, along with infrastructure investments including in schools, roads and social housing, prevented recession and saved hundreds of thousands of jobs and small businesses following the Global Financial Crisis."

I understand that the honourable member for Blaxland will second the amendment, because it does represent the true history of the global financial crisis, not the sort of propaganda rewriting we have heard from this government and, no doubt, which we will hear in the contributions to follow.

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