Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Oh, dear, Member for Chifley! If that was a job application to be a stand-up comedian, I do not think you pass. No-one of sound mind or judgement can or should trust Labor. Labor's lies and incompetence have saddled this nation with a huge debt burden. Filling in such a massive hole will not happen overnight. When we last held office, the budget was in surplus. We were $50 billion in the black. We were earning interest, not paying interest. The interest on their debt alone is $1 billion per month or $45 per month for every man, woman and child in Australia. Two months of that interest would be enough to build the Fiona Stanley Hospital in my electorate of Tangney. That hospital is the most modern in the Southern Hemisphere. Just think what not paying the mortgage on the credit card would mean for infrastructure around the country. Think of what that extra money would do for people stuck in traffic on the Bruce or Hume highways, or in Sydney, Melbourne or even Perth. In short, responsible budgeting means living within our means.

The key message is this: only the Abbott coalition government has an Economic Action Strategy that will grow the economy and fix Labor's debt and deficit disaster. Without ameliorative action, the country was on track for $667 billion of debt—$30,000-odd for every man, woman and child in Australia. One of Labor's biggest failures has been our biggest success—border protection. Stopping the boats was a key plank in our policy platform at the last election. We said that we would stop the boats, and we did. Not only have we restored integrity to our immigration system but we have stopped the needless tragedy of mass drownings at sea. Critically for this debate, it means that we have also stopped the haemorrhaging of public money. Under Labor, we bled money at every turn in this policy space. Search and rescue is expensive, administration is expensive and lifetime welfare payments are more expensive still. Many genuine refugees were left waiting, as queuejumpers risked paying people smugglers to make the journey to Australia. This injustice has stopped.

The list of achievements is long, and my time short. This first Abbott administration is committed to action. We have scrapped the carbon tax, saving the average household $550 per annum. We have scrapped the mining tax so that this vital sector can create more jobs. We have handed down a $50 billion infrastructure package—the single largest infrastructure package in this country's history. We have delivered free trade agreements with Japan, with China and with Korea, and this means more jobs for Australians. We are putting in place long-term structural reforms to fix the budget.

To quote Ronald Reagan:

The nine most terrifying words … are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'

At the last election, the Australian people said: 'Stop helping. We are dying of regulation suffocation.' We will heat the economic engine with economic bonfires of bureaucracy. The globally-interconnected competitive marketplace scares the pants off lazy Labor layabouts. How lazy? So lazy that your leader did not even bother to check that the petition was compliant when he presented it in this place recently. If they cannot run their own house, why would you let them run your house?

Labor have no plan for our country. Our government have a clear vision: free trade and a higher value-added strategy of sustainable growth. I am pleased that a can-do government that understands business is now back in charge. My constituents in Tangney have been waiting for years to see work commence on the Roe Highway stage 8 extension. I welcome the $675 million to finish the Gateway WA project in Perth. Unlike Labor, we do cost-benefit analyses. You promised surpluses and delivered deficits. You promised conservative fiscal policy and delivered more and higher taxes. You promised stability and delivered two coups and much chaos. Let us get back to building hope, reward and opportunity. (Time expired)

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