Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

What an interesting MPI we have here today; the Abbott government is unfair and is damaging Australia's economy! Let us talk about an unfair budget. What is more unfair than a political party, that held office in this country for six years, that has basically stolen every last dollar and cent from my children and my future grandchildren. Going into the future, accumulated deficits of $123 million and debt owed by this country of $667,000 million. What is more unfair than that?

Doing what is right for our great country is not easy. It is not easy; in fact, it is tough. It takes courage, and it takes courageous people, and it takes a courageous political party. Doing what is right for your political party in the case of the ALP is always easy—just instil fear, promise the world to everyone and tell everyone that you are a friend. It is like the old Joh Bjelke-Petersen line: feed the chooks—just had out more money.

The question is, to all the smart alecs on the other side, who is paying for it? Who is paying for it? The member for Charlton over there stood in this place recently, talking about the fact that he wanted a future for his children while he was talking about the carbon tax. He wanted a tremendous future for his children. Why did he not actually make a similar speech as each and every budget was rolled out by his treasurers every single year when he accumulated a deficit? Why don't you tell your children about that?

This lot opposite, who held the Treasury benches for six years, had leaders that could not lead, treasurers that could not count, immigration ministers that could not say no and finally they had a foreign minister that could not find a pair of pyjamas that matched his ego. They stand for nothing. They have great bravado in this place, as we just heard a few moments ago, where they are hanging their hats, their coats, their jocks and their socks on the power of the Senate to stand in the way of a courageous government that is trying desperately to get this country's debt and deficit under control. Well, I have got news for you, and if you listen then you might learn something. The news is: you do not, even with your best friends the Greens, hold control of the Senate. I actually believe that the crossbench senators in the other place are more than honourable. They are certainly more honourable than you and the Greens, that is for sure. I think, deep down in my heart of hearts, that they too want to be courageous, that they too want to save their children and their grandchildren from the absolute cliff-face dilemma that this country is going to face through the next generation. I think, with all the honourable intentions that we can find, that we will find a way, together with the crossbenchers, to make a move forward.

We are a government that is serious about what is best for the country, not what is best for us. If we were doing what is best for us, we would be taking the easy road as you did for six years. After six years, this is the question I have for the Australian people. They gave a verdict on September 13 last year. The question is this: did they vote to give us the mandate to do the things we want purely because this lot over here were relationally dysfunctional, or was it because they were economically incompetent, or was it both? It was both. The Australian people installed a government to get debt and deficit under control. As I wrap up, I will tell you something for nothing: you can do a lot to instil fear into individuals and into individual groups and scare the daylights out of them, or you can do something for the nation and build a future. (Time expired)

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