Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

You learn a lot of things in this place and you are surprised by some of them. The thing that has surprised me most in this place is the level of misinformation that is deliberately promulgated. I was sitting here thinking that there is one solution to the debt crisis. If we levied the Labor Party $1 every time they used the word 'cut', we would manage our debt quite comfortably. And we could charge them $2 every time it was an act of misrepresentation because when you pay more into a fund, invest more, it is disingenuous to call them cuts.

In any event, I thought I would talk about something I am passionate about—regional South Australia. I am passionate about it because I have lived my whole life there. If I could have got my university degree in Mt Gambier—and I could now, by the way—then I would have lived my whole life there. Do you know what is hurting regional Australia and South Australia the most?

An opposition member: The Abbott government.

No, it is $667 billion of your debt and it is $1 billion a month. I reflected on this and wondered what I could do in the electorate of Barker for $1 billion. I would be a hero, to start with. There has been a lot of discussion in South Australia—and my good friend the member for Hindmarsh would agree with me—about the Royal Adelaide Hospital. The Royal Adelaide Hospital is being built for $2 billion. I could build a Royal Adelaide Hospital in Mt Gambier after two months. I could build one in Renmark after two months. I could build one at Karoonda after two months. Those on the other side create the problem and then they whinge about us fixing the problem. The reality is that this problem is your problem and we are addressing it. Do you know what regional Australians and South Australians hate the most about this? It is not only that we are paying $1 billion a month but that we are sending $700 million of it offshore. It is time to wake up and smell the coffee, quite frankly.

The member for Bendigo would like to see more union influence when it comes to decisions. I think the people in regional South Australia would like to see less union influence. Quite frankly, the member for Franklin can laugh all she likes, but the reality is this is serious. They laugh about this motion on the budget. When I go back to my community we cry because $1 billion a month is not able to be spent in regional Australia. I have just met with the CEO of the South Australian Local Government Association—and I will be meeting with mayors from my electorate tonight over dinner—and she told me—and this has been confirmed in meetings I have had throughout the electorate over the last week—

Honourable members interjecting—

On this topic. If you waited a minute and listened, you would get the answer. She came to me and said, 'We in local government in South Australia understand that we need to do our bit.' I asked her why she had that view and her answer was—wait for it—

Honourable members interjecting—

If you listen, her answer was, 'Because Labor got us in this mess.' That was her view in the discussion. I should have taped it and played it to you. I have served in local government for eight years and the one thing I learnt in local government that I have brought to this place is that you cannot spend more money than your raise. You can do it for a year or for two years, but we had six years of it and we spent and spent. The debt was $96 billion when John Howard and Peter Costello took the treasury bench. Our task—$667 billion—is close to seven times that task. Who put us in this position? The ALP did and they come into this place and say, 'We are worried about the effects this budget will have on regional Australia and South Australia in particular.'

The reality is that we were forced to make these tough but fair calls because the Labor Party forced us to do it. Imagine if we had not wasted money on pink batts and overpriced school halls. We could have actually delivered the kind of infrastructure regional Australia needs to deliver its product to the market. In this Asian century it will be agriculture and regional Australia that drive us out of it. Quite thankfully, I am glad that it will not be the Labor Party leading this country over the next three years.

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