Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In speaking on this matter of public importance, I say to the member for Fowler, quickly, before he leaves the chamber, that last week I was out in my electorate every day talking to people, doing a mobile office. I was out every night of the week explaining our position and what this budget is all about. The opposition say that this budget is about hurt and division. They say it is an unfair budget. I am here to say that that is not true. This budget is about a number of things. Most importantly, it is about repaying and tackling Australia's debt and deficit problem; it is about ensuring that our welfare system is sustainable long into the future; and it is about building and investing in record infrastructure in this country.

Looking at the debt and deficit issue, we know that, over the last six years of Labor government, all the tax they collected from people throughout this country—all the income tax that they received from everyone working, here in this place and throughout the country, all the company tax that they received from all over the country—was all spent by Labor, plus another $200 billion. There was $191 billion in deficits for the last six years and they left us another $123 billion in the forward estimates. My father always said to me, 'Son, if you're going to get a loan, if you're going to borrow money, then you need to ensure that you budget for a 10 per cent interest rate.'

Now, $191 billion means $19 billion a year in interest. Thankfully, we have a better interest rate than that and we are only paying $1 billion a month. We are only paying $12 billion a year. To put that amount into perspective—one of the members today spoke about the ABC—the entire ABC runs on a budget of $1 billion a year. What we are paying in interest alone is enough to fund 12 ABCs. Imagine what we could do with that money if we had not been left with Labor's legacy of debt and deficit. Neither the Leader of the Opposition nor the members for Fowler, Scullin, Chisholm and Richmond mentioned in this debate a single dollar they would save when they bring down their budget, should they get back into power.

This budget is about ensuring that our welfare system is sustainable. The opposition leader said today that there was no support for people under 30 in this budget—no support. I say: stop scaring people. There are lots of safety nets in our budget. We live in Australia, the greatest country on earth. For those people who are doing it tough, who are on disability, who are unemployed, who have a mental illness, of course there are safety nets. For single mums, of course there is a safety net; there are welfare payments. But the days of leaving year 12 and going on the dole a month later are gone.

This budget is about infrastructure. We are building in my electorate. We are upgrading the Bruce Highway at every intersection, I think, between Bald Hills and Caloundra, right up to the member for Fisher's seat. We are upgrading the Gateway Motorway. We are investing in infrastructure to get people moving and to get small business moving, because on this side of the House we believe in lower taxes and smaller government. We believe that small businesses are the ones that employ people in this country, not government. By investing in infrastructure, those small businesses will be able to get moving.

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