Clive Palmer (Fairfax, Palmer United Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will just reflect and say before I start my speech: it is sad that members of the government are not informed about what the real facts are. It is sad that they are relying on the leadership of the Treasurer and the Prime Minister to advise them what the facts are. I would advise all members of the government to go to the OECD website, go to International Monetary Fund, and see what the real situation is in relation to Australia's debt.

There is no need at all for a debt levy. It is just to create a fear among Australians that we are in a difficult position so the government can introduce a lot of retrospective situations that we do not need. The true situation is, in the OECD, Australia is the third lowest debt nation. Our debt is about 12 per cent of our GDP, and the debt in the average advanced economies in the OECD is 73 per cent of their GDP. So we are five times better off, and maybe that is the reason why Australia is only one of 13 nations in the world that has a triple-A credit rating. It is as simple as that.

When the Treasurer and the Prime Minister made their promises before the election, they were aware of these things and that is why they made the promise that there would be no cuts to pensions, no changes with Medicare and all the rest of it.

As Australians we do not want to sit in this place and talk rubbish and lies about what the real state of the economy is. There are tried, tested and proven means which are available to every member of the government on the OECD and the IMF to say what our true position is. So why then doesn't the backbench in the government hold their leadership to account? Why don't they raise these irrefutable facts in the party room and get the explanation from the Treasurer and see what he has got to say about it? And why do the Treasurer and the Prime Minister lie to the Australian people? Aren't they responsible for that?

I joined the Liberal Party many years ago—40 years ago I was a Liberal-National Party member. I was here in Canberra when we had the Field affair, the Gair affair. I have been through more elections than most of the members of the government would ever know. But I remember Bob Menzies as Prime Minister of this country who stood for a Liberal Party that was a low-taxing party. I remember Malcolm Fraser as Prime Minister of Australia who stood for a low taxation, and John Howard. The Liberal Party in its history has believed in low taxation, so to bring in a debt levy, to tax anyone, to push our taxes higher is just a sound that the Liberal Party are moving more and more to become a socialist party, no longer different for Australians and not providing any leadership for the business community of Australia.

It is not about small government; it is about bigger government. That is why you need taxes, and this debt levy of two per cent, breaking a promise that the Liberal Party made to all Liberals of Australia that they would not increase taxes, is tantamount to a misrepresentation.

As a director of a company for many years, I know that, if I lie to my shareholders when raising money or doing something, I risk the proposition of being charged for deceptive and misleading conduct. The Prime Minister, whom I supported very strongly in the 2010 election, went out there and made a lot of promises to the Australian people. For three years, he criticised Julia Gillard, the former Prime Minister. For three years he said that she broke one promise, which she did to the Australian people. That was the basis of getting rid of the Labor Party. But now we have got a Prime Minister who has not broken one promise; he has probably broken 30 of them.

Last weekend I was approached by four members of my electorate—elderly women, aged between 70 and 83 years of age—who said that every month they give their pension cheque to the nursing home where they live. They did not vote for me at the election, but for 50 years they have been loyal members of the Liberal Party and they have voted for the Liberal Party at every election because they were loyal Liberals. Their husbands had fought for this nation in World War II, and were now deceased, and they were placed in the nursing home.

After they give their cheque to the nursing home they are left with a sum of $15 a week, which the nursing home gives back to them. And every Friday they get that money and they pool it together. They have enough to buy a taxi to go down with their concession cards and go to the movies. And sometimes they have some other money that the family might give them so that they can have a coffee or a chocolate.

But there will be no more coffee or chocolate for these women; they will not have an outing every week. Their lives will be diminished by the party that they have supported for 50 years; by the nation that their husbands fought for in the Second World War. They will lose all of that because of the betrayal of the Liberal Party and the Liberals of this nation. And they wonder why they will get opposition in the Senate. They will get more than that until they wake up to themselves.

The Liberal Party should be a broad church. It should be representing all sections of society, not just one narrow view. It should not be based upon lies, deceit and deception. The Liberal Party should be greater than that and stronger than that, and it has been for many years. It should not be disrespectful for the Liberal leaders who have gone before—people like Bob Menzies, Malcolm Fraser and John Howard—who had real character. That is what they should be doing, and caring about Australia. The Liberal Party is not a high-taxing party. How can they bring in a debt levy and tax us higher and higher again? Is this a return to the Whitlam era? They should wake up to themselves. And how can they lie to the Australian people?

In my state of Queensland—

See this speech in context