John Cobb (Calare, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Obviously every business has to account for itself, hopefully on an annual basis. Whether you are a government or a private business or a public company, there has to be an accounting. Unfortunately, it was left to us upon assuming government to have to do that accounting because it was a long time since the Australian people—the Australian government on their behalf—had done that.

In business terms, if you were starting off in business and were handed a company which was very much in the black, showing around about a $25 billion profit for the year with about another $60 billion in the bank in various forms, you would think: 'How marvellous is this! We can really build on this.' Unfortunately, what the Australian people were left with six years later, and what our new government had to pick up, was an incredible turnaround. Australia, like New Zealand and like Brazil, is basically an economy based on resources. But Brazil and New Zealand did not do a GFC borrow; those two countries pretty much came through unscathed without plunging their country into debt because of the GFC. I have always felt that the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government basically saw the GFC as an excuse to borrow money and throw it around.

After six years we are faced with the kind of debt we have now—it is estimated to be heading towards $670 billion. If we are paying $1 billion interest every month now, which we are, by the time we get to $670 billion, we will be well north of $2 billion a month. For a country that seven years ago or thereabouts was in the opposite position, that is quite remarkable. In fact I have always felt it was not easy to borrow and blow the money that the previous government under their various leaders managed to blow—and that includes the current Leader of the Opposition in a big way and most of his frontbench.

I am not going to go through this budget figure by figure but I do think some common sense has to come into the current argument about why it is a tough budget—and about the future. I have quite a few daughters and I have quite a lot of grandchildren and I believe they deserve a prosperous future, not one laden with debt and missed opportunity. If we keep going the way we are going, there is nothing surer than that, as somebody said, 'the issue will not be what we trim; it will be what we close'—whether it is hospitals, whether it is schools, whatever it is. So, having to take a deep breath and say, 'we are not going to bust anyone, but everyone has to be involved', is not that big a deal. I think we can get through this, as long as we do not sit and whinge about it every minute of every day.

The ABC had a program called The Hollowmen.I remember it distinctly and it was quite funny. It was a little embarrassing. I guess it was Australia's version of Yes, Minister. I remember one episode in which the Prime Minister of the day wanted something big to go to the people, something impressive, so they came up with this program which was going to be enormous. It is safe to say that they were incredibly excited about it; it was going to end up $100 billion over the forward estimates. And they were excited. Then suddenly at the last minute they had to turn around and say, 'Well, what is it?'—because the Prime Minister was wrapped; he was really impressed—and they suddenly realised they had not actually worked out what the program was. I honestly think that is how we ended up with the NBN. I think the government of the day watched the show and they were impressed too. I am quite sure that they decided they were going to do this, and they came up with the NBN and Gonski. We all like it, in its intentions, but you do have to be able to afford these things. I do not truly believe that they knew what they were doing. One hopes they were doing it in the best interests of the country, but you do have to have a measure of responsibility about fiscal reality and about business. I guess that is what we have really missed.

I would like to talk for a minute about some of the things in here and why I do not think they are unreasonable. I will go to universities for a start. Universities are incredibly necessary. We have to have people who do the intellectual thing. We need people with university degrees not to build rockets but to come up with better ways of doing the NBN and to do all sorts of things we need. I am quite willing as a taxpayer to fund them to an extent. Only 30 per cent of people who leave school actually go to university and to say that they themselves should fund 50 per cent of that seems to me to be eminently reasonable. The majority of the 70 per cent who do not go to university will get a job and start paying tax almost from the day they leave school. They are paying taxes to give assistance to those who essentially at the end of the day jump the job queue and get far better paying jobs. Having said that, the most successful men and women I know actually did not go to university; they are self-made people—but that is another issue. My point is that I do not think it is unreasonable to expect those who get a leg up in life to pay back half the costs of doing that on behalf of those who have been paying taxes for them from a much earlier time in their lives. I do not think that that is unreasonable at all.

The school issue is that we committed to the four years of funding that Labor committed to. Despite what the member for Adelaide said, they did not commit one cent past those four years. I do not think anyone has ever disagreed that the way schooling is funded could be refined. But to say, 'Simply because we want it, we have to have it,' is like a child in a lolly shop, and that is pretty much what happened for six years.

I am really upset about the way many people in the community, particularly the opposition, have deliberately gone out to frighten pensioners about something they do not have to be frightened about. We have not taken money away from pensioners. We committed that we would not do it and we have not. When you consider that in July when we get rid of the carbon tax and get rid of those things they will get to keep their compensation, I think it is quite desperate lying to try to frighten a lot of people who are past the stage in life when they should have to suffer that kind of fear.

When I talk to people in the electorate and generally everyone acknowledges the need for a responsible budget, a tough budget that is not that tough on any one particular section of the community. I have found that they will acknowledge that, but they say, 'Aren't you being a little bit tough in my area?' I think we all have to be responsible. I actually do find the vast majority of people are incredibly mature about it—more so than I expected. I am very sorry that pensioners have been frightened. They should not have been. They absolutely had no reason to be. The real downside is pensioners were frightened when they should not be.

I have not heard anyone on that side talk about the fact that for the first time in six years—and the ex infrastructure minister, who is at the table, should hang his head—not one cent was put into mobile phones and we have just committed $100 million to mobile phone towers. I do not hear him talking about that. From the day the Labor Party got into office not a cent was spent on mobile phone coverage. It obviously was not an issue. You do not live in the right place to find out where it is an issue.

I want to talk about The Hollowmen broadband—the $100 billion that was such a great spend. I want to talk about that for a moment. I am now referring to my own responsibility in Australia, Calare. Do you know that Calare was not even on the horizon with mobile phone and broadband. It was not mentioned in dispatches for broadband and now we have fixed wireless. We already have about nine towers on their way up and more are to come. Suddenly there has been a little bit of responsibility and suddenly getting better broadband is a priority, not for the middle of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane but for regional people who need it. Those who do not already have usable business-type broadband are actually going to get it. They were not even on the horizon. I actually think Calare is quite happy about that.

Then there is the Black Spot Program. If you drive in country areas you think that is pretty good too. There is extra money. It is rather appropriate for the then minister for roads and infrastructure to walk in at this time. He is trying to say that $50 billion is not any money at all. He is trying to say it is not a huge extra spend on what he was doing. Let me tell you that it is a hell of a lot more in regional Australia than he ever dreamt of spending. The extra money going to Roads to Recovery and the extra money going to Black Spot is way above anything he ever dreamt of. Getting out of central Sydney is not a bad idea—I tell a lie; he did give me a lift to Bourke one day, and I appreciated it.

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