Peter Hendy (Eden-Monaro, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very happy to, Mr Deputy Speaker, because it gives me an opportunity to basically say the same thing. Where is the money coming from, Leader of the Opposition?

I would like to note that there are two myths coming from the opposition benches on this issue. The first myth—and you heard it from the member for McMahon, who is leading this debate from the opposition side—is that Labor invented superannuation. Labor should realise that superannuation started in this country in 1860. It was not invented by the Labor Party just the other day, by Paul Keating. The second part of this is that superannuation is about a savings policy and savings in this country. There are two parts to savings in this country: there are public savings and private savings. Superannuation is part of the private savings in this country.

The second great myth is that Labor care about savings. They obviously do not care about public savings; they just spend money. The fact is that, in the last six years, the legacy that was left by the Howard government—a brilliant legacy in terms of having the budget in order—has been completely squandered. The sum of $123 billion was run up. You ran up forward estimate spending policies that would lead to an eventual debt in 10 years time of $667 billion.

A government member: Shame!

That is an absolute shame. It means that, at the moment, the federal government is borrowing money to pay $1 billion a month in interest bills. That money we are borrowing is coming from overseas so that we can pay the interest bill, 70 per cent of which goes back overseas. That is what Labor think about savings. They have no concept of savings across the whole of the national economy, because what does that debt mean? That debt, $667 billion within 10 years, amounts to $25,000 per man, woman and child in this country.

The other hypocrisy about the proposals being debated today is that Labor care about super. Let me tell you: in the lead-up to the 2007 election, Labor said they would not change super. In fact, Kevin Rudd, as the then Leader of the Opposition, explicitly stated in the 2007 election that Labor would not change superannuation laws, 'not one jot, not one tittle'. And what did he actually do? I will tell you what he did: in the six years that Labor were in office, they cut almost $9 billion out of super benefits and some $3.3 billion from super benefits for lower income earners in this country. That is your record. You come here with great hypocrisy—

Mr Brendan O'Connor interjecting—

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