Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

and thank you member for Barker for walking straight into it. Because earlier, in January 2013, I remember the shadow Treasurer, now Treasurer, telling ABC AM, and I quote: 'Our commitment is emphatic. Based on the numbers published today, we will deliver a surplus in our first year and every year after that.' That is what he said last year. And guess what happened? He walked away from that.

The member for Mayo wants to refer to our time in government. You often hear from the coalition a reference to, 'But what about your time in government?' The thing is this: on the path to your office, on the path to election, you made it a virtue by saying that what you say you will do you will deliver. Those opposite said that, if they make a commitment, they will deliver it. But, every time they make a commitment, they cannot.

The other time when the Treasurer spoke with such confidence, such gusto that he would be able to achieve was in May 2013, when he said: 'I can promise that the coalition will deliver a better budget bottom line than Labor.' A better bottom line. Let's fast forward six months to their first MYEFO document. PEFO—independently established—said that the budget deficit will be $30 billion. What happened? By MYEFO it went to $47 billion for their first one. This was not a case of trying to blame the former government; there were active decisions that were made by those opposite that contributed to it: the $9 billion they gifted and handed over to the Reserve Bank; the $1.1 billion that they turned their back on in terms of profit shifting and the way you could have dealt with that. They turned their back on changing the way in which wealthy superannuants are taxed. Their active decisions deteriorated the budget. So when the Treasurer, in May 2013, said, 'I can promise that the coalition will deliver a better budget bottom line than Labor,' again, wait six months and it all turns to dust.

The Treasurer got a few good confidence figures in November 2013 and he suddenly went out and told everyone. He got a few good figures on consumer confidence and in November of last year said, 'Consumers have now started taking their wallets out of their pockets.' And guess what happened six months after that. After the consumers took their wallets out of their pockets, these people opposite took $6,000 out through their budget. A budget that ripped people off. It ripped off pensioners. It lifted fuel tax. It ripped off people who wanted to send their children to university. It imposed a GP tax. The consumers took their wallets out and then they got thugged by this government in their very first budget. And what happened as a result? Confidence tanked.

When you look at all of the figures, one after the other, the business sector cannot believe what they are seeing. What they are seeing now is people concerned about whether or not they will be able to spend, because the budget has ripped $6,000 out of families. At a time when the economy needs that confidence, it is not there. The only time you see confidence is from one person, and it is the Treasurer just before he is about to make another stuff-up; he will tell you one thing on one day, and in six month's time it will end and be departed from. Just like a Prime Minister who is simply incapable of telling the truth. You cannot trust a single commitment given by this government; they will walk away from it once they have the votes, and that is what people should remember.

See this speech in context