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

I thank the honourable member for Macquarie for her question. On each occasion the member for Macquarie has gone to the polls she has promised the Australian people that we would get on with the job of fixing the budget, and we are. We are getting on with the job of fixing the mess that was left to us by the Australian Labor Party—$123 billion of deficits and $667 billion of debt. The thing is that once upon a time the Labor Party believed in that as well. The Labor Party once believed that we had to ensure that the budget gets back to surplus. At this very dispatch box in 2012 the member for Lilley, who is obviously in a witness protection program this week, said:

We will be back in the black by 2012-13, on time, as promised.

He went on to say:

The alternative — meandering back to surplus — would compound the pressures in our economy and push up the cost of living for pensioners and working people.

Under Labor they did not meander back to surplus, they went AWOL. They absolutely disappeared when it came to a surplus. They promised a surplus and then claimed they were delivering a surplus, but they went missing. They never delivered a surplus. Now is the time to fix the budget. It must be done now. If we want jobs, if we want prosperity, if we want to be competitive in the days, months and years ahead, now is the time to start fixing the budget. We must do so. And there are a hell of a lot of early warning devices out there—the governor of the Reserve Bank said, 'Now is the time to fix the budget.' The Secretary of the Treasury said, 'Now is the time to fix the budget.' Even Dr John Edwards, a former advisor to Paul Keating, said, 'Now is the time to fix the budget.' After our government was elected, Paul Keating said, 'Now is the time to fix the budget.' Bob Hawke said, 'Now is the time to fix the budget.' The Labor Party used to say, 'Now is the time to fix the budget.' But they are now opposing everything we are doing. The weird thing is that they are opposing everything that they were going to do.

Mr Champion interjecting—

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