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

I thank the honourable member for Bass for his question. I recognise that he, like most other Australians, knows that we have to do something about the legacy of $667 billion of debt that would have been in place had we not taken the decisions that we took on budget night. It is about getting the budget back on track. That was one of our key election promises: to fix the budget, to fix the mess that Labor left. At the moment we are paying a billion dollars a month—one billion dollars every month in interest on the debt that Labor has left. This would be $2.8 billion a month in 10 years time if nothing is done. That is $2.8 billion a month in 10 years time if nothing is done about the state of the budget. Under the legacy of the previous government, each Australian's share of the interest would be $9,400 over the next 10 years. In four years time alone, if nothing is done, every single Australian will be paying the equivalent of $740 in interest alone on Labor's debt—$740 each.

To put that in perspective, as the IMF identified, we were left with a legacy of the third fastest growth in net debt of the surveyed countries by the IMF. What does that mean? That means that, ultimately, as interest rates rise, the punitive measures a future government would need to take to fix the budget would be more dramatic. We need to take action now. We must take action now, because the pain associated with taking action in the future would be far greater if we went down the path that the Labor Party is advocating—that is, do nothing. When you do nothing you become a victim of circumstances. When you take action you have at least a chance to control your destiny. The coalition is firmly of the view that we must take action now to repair the budget and to reduce the level of debt burden that is being passed on to future generations of Australians.

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