Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think the member should withdraw that interjection. He cannot speak about the facts because he was not here then. If he is talking about members who have made gigs of themselves in this place for the reasons that he is saying our Prime Minister did, he should have a close look at himself and at his fellow colleagues.

As I said, it was 4.24 am when the Treasurer got to his feet to guillotine the debate just before I was about to make my speech. It was obviously disappointing to be denied the chance to speak at an important moment for the last parliament. In many respects, this was the moment when the nation's finances began to get out of control under Labor. I have found that speech and I would like to quote from it because I think it is relevant to this Tax Bonus for Working Australians Repeal Bill. It gives me a chance to get it on the record because I have not had the chance since then.

One part of that speech read: 'The second reason was that I had beliefs, standards and values that I developed over my lifetime and I wanted to make sure that I could live by those in this place and I could achieve positive results that are the best for my electorate and for the people of Australia. This second reason is why I have to oppose this package. The ink is barely dry on the legislation paper and we have been asked to vote on this legislation and support it without proper scrutiny, like it is going to be the economic saviour of this country. Prime Minister Rudd thinks just because it is his package and he is a self-professed economic genius that we the opposition should roll over like a dead dog and say, "Yes, yes, yes, this will save Australia."'

I also had in that speech: 'The basic reason the world is experiencing a global financial crisis is debt. World banks are in debt, business is in debt, people are in debt. The world has borrowed too much. Despite all this debt, the government, through the Nation Building and Jobs Plan we have been discussing through the night, is planning to burden the country with a level of debt not seen in this century. In fact, in the fine print of the legislation, the government seeks to obtain the power to increase government debt to $200 billion—$9,500 of debt for every Australian, a level of debt never seen before; this from a government which inherited a $22 billion surplus. There has to be a point when this government will realise that it is irresponsible to keep fighting debt with more debt. It is a contradiction in terms, reckless, morally abject and economically irresponsible.' How could this country wish to still have that ceiling of $200 billion, but as we know it has gone way above that due to the reckless spending of the previous government.

Also from that speech: 'The Prime Minister would like us to believe that he has been approaching this financial crisis from the ideological high ground. The Prime Minister's approach has nothing to do with ideology; it has all been about political strategy. In his recent essay, the Prime Minister portrays himself as an ideological warrior, a far-seeing, anti-neoliberal leader ahead of the curve. This is quite a change of ideological position. Twelve months ago, our Prime Minister was waging a war on inflation, with his Treasurer now infamously claiming that the inflation genie was out of the bottle. In this budget year, Kevin Rudd was busy implementing expenditure cuts. The Prime Minister was desperate for us to believe he was the model economic conservative. During this time we, the coalition, were warning of the pending economic slowdown. We stressed maintaining growth and jobs was the main priority. Fast forward to February 2009 and our Prime Minister has become a born-again economic Keynesian. Make no mistake, this is a political strategy not an ideological or an economic one. Perhaps a more consistent approach from the Prime Minister would have led to a better response to the global financial crisis.'

Back to 2014, and today the coalition government are dealing with the legacy of many of the decisions made in haste in 2009, which have resulted in record levels of debt for this country. In fact, as MYEFO showed in December, in the absence of any policy changes from what we have inherited, the budget will not return to surplus within the 10-year medium-term projections, with gross debt at this time projected to increase to $667 billion. This government have inherited a record debt.

It is in this context that tough decisions have to be made. But perhaps we should start with an easy decision and stop sending of $900 cheques to dead people. More than 21,000 cheques have been mailed to dead people since the Tax Bonus for Working Australians Act was passed by the Labor government in 2009 and until recently the tax commissioner was still sending them out. In fact, during the last financial year some 15,000 cheques were issued, totalling around $13 million of borrowed money.

As I have mentioned before in the House, I recall during the Rudd period a talkback caller to 6PR in Perth whose name was Charlie. He won the title of talkback caller of the day. The subject he spoke about was on what he had spent his $900 of stimulus money and he had spent it at the brothels. I remember the Treasurer on that night five years ago saying, 'Our tax bonuses are targeted at people most likely to spend.' I guess Charlie would have agreed with him. He used the stimulus money in other forms of stimulus. That is the sort of waste that occurred as it was handed out. It was of course the former Treasurer, the member for Lilley, who embarked on this policy as a splurge against the GFC and sent out $900 cheques to working Australians earning less than $80,000; $600 cheques to those in the $80,000 to $90,000 range; and $250 to those in the $90,000 to $100,000 range. This was part of the rushed and poorly thought through package of stimulus measures that included the $2.4 billion roof insulation scheme, now tragically the subject of a judicial inquiry.

The coalition raised concerns about both these measures but all we got back was vitriol. The Treasurer labelled concerns about his schemes as 'blind ideology'. Time has passed and I think the Australian people can see that it was the Treasurer who was sailing in the dark during the global financial crisis. Given that the stimulus to the economy is no longer required and time has moved on since the GFC, the government clearly considers that further payments are not warranted.

The bill repeals the Tax Bonus for Working Australians Act 2009 to ensure that the Commissioner of Taxation does not make any further tax bonus payments while also making consequential amendments to the taxation law as a result of the repeal of the tax bonus act. As outlined in the explanatory memorandum provided by the minister under the current law, the commissioner must continue to honour all tax bonus entitlements by reissuing lost or stale cheques and by making new payments as a result of an entitlement of which the commissioner has only recently become aware because of a request for an amended assessment of income tax. I know that in my previous office we were delivered some $900 cheques from one of the constituents. They were sent to his property because there had been some overseas 457 workers who had left the country. He returned those cheques to our office and we forwarded them to the Treasury.

Under this new legislation, the commissioner will not be able to make any new tax payments, however he will retain the power to undertake compliance action with respect to the past claims and, where necessary, undertake recovery action in respect of overpayments. One of the consequential amendments required will be to the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 to remove an income tax exemption in respect of the tax bonus and to remove from the checklist of tax exemptions the tax exemption for payments of the tax bonus. These amendments will be delayed until 1 July 2016 to accommodate late payments allowed to continue by the former government and a period of review for taxpayers. The expected saving of $0.25 million, or $250,000, on an underlying cash basis over the forward estimates may well seem small compared to Labor's $667 billion gross debt legacy—and I heard the member for Fraser talking about it before as being slightly more than the salary of a member of this place—but that is just the part the Labor Party do not get. It is only $250,000, he said, but there are many people in Australia who would think that $250,000 is a lot of money and that it should not be wasted recklessly by governments, and his belittling of the amount of money that this bill will actually save is a common feature of the Labor Party's approach to fiscal control.

This bill is about engendering a culture of saving rather than a culture of waste. This scheme has cost the nation $7.7 billion already in borrowed government money. That is a legacy of the Labor government to the future generations which will have to pay back the entire amount plus the interest being spent. This government is indicating by this bill that it will be treating taxpayers' money with respect and making sure all expenditures are justified.

This is of course the government's mandate. During the 2013 federal election, the government made a commitment to end waste, and this bill is part of delivering on that commitment. The government is delivering on its commitment to stop the boats after Labor's failed border protection policies resulted in a blow-out of at least $6.6 billion of borrowed money. The government has streamlined its operations by closing a number of departments and agency taskforces which were costing the taxpayer more in borrowed money. The government is reducing the size of the public service through natural attrition to ensure a leaner, more effective government for the Australian people. As promised, the government will deliver a cost-effective NBN for the Australian people which will upgrade the areas of need first. And the government has undertaken its Commission of Audit, as promised, to identify further savings to get Australia's budget position back on track. And we will all be interested in what the Commission of Audit finds and I predict it will reveal more examples of the culture of waste of the Labor government.

That waste came from a number of failures and I will give you some of those examples. Some of the waste came from profligacy. The $100,000 fake carbon tax kitchen is a case in point. Some of the waste came from mismanagement. The Australia network tender debacle led to the government having to pay $2 million in compensation to Sky News. Some of the waste came from incompetence. The previous government paid $350 per set top box when Harvey Norman sells them for $168, almost half the cost. The mining tax policy disaster, which sparked the downfall of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, resulted in the department having to spend $30,000 on a consultancy firm to work out how it could be compliant.

Some of the waste came from the dodgy payments to Labor mates, with a donation of $10 million of taxpayers' money to the unions to train union leaders, noted in the 2012-13 budget. We know that by 2012 Fair Work Australia had had to spend more than $1.8 million on outside legal and accounting advice for its investigation into the rorting of HSU funds including $1.3 million on external legal advice, $100,000 on external accounting advice and $430,000 on KPMG's review of the investigation.

And the examples continue. Of course some of the waste came from Labor's inability to govern itself. There was $1.3 million in payments following the political assassination of Kevin Rudd on 24 June 2010. There were so many failures it is lucky they were able to be documented in the Little Book of Labor Waste put together by the member for Mayo. They were prime examples of the waste that was dealt out by that government.

The coalition is determined to make sure that we end that waste and this bill is the start of that process. It will draw a line in the sand and indicate to the Australian public that we are determined to make sure as a government that we are responsible. We hold taxpayers' money in the highest regard and we will continue to ensure that we find the best way to get the economy back on track and to make sure that the taxpayers of Australia have confidence in the government.

See this speech in context