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

If we are to deliver an economic action strategy that strengthens the Australian economy and helps us to be more robust in the face of external shocks, it is vitally important that we start to repair the mess left by the previous Labor government, and nothing illustrates that more than the state of the budget. The member for Lilley stood at this dispatch box and pledged to the Australian people that he was delivering four years of surpluses. Labor never delivered a surplus. Labor actually would never have delivered a surplus. That is because they locked in expenditure that kept growing and growing against a revenue base that was never going to meet the target. As a result, we have had to make difficult decisions. We know they are difficult. But they are so vitally important in the medium and long term to ensure that, as a nation, we live within our means.

Labor's legacy, after 10 years, would have been $667 billion of government debt. Seventy per cent of that is owed by the Australian people to people overseas. That is what it means. We have to repay that money with interest, and in 10 years time every Australian born—every child born—would start life with $25,000 of debt as a result of what Labor did in just six years. So now the burden has fallen on us, and we are up to the task. We are determined to fix the budget mess Labor left behind. Whatever the budget numbers, as of today, they would be $43 billion worse as a result of what this Leader of the Opposition has done and said. They are opposing $28 billion of savings. Five billion dollars of those savings are, in fact, what they promised the Australian people at the last election. They lied to the Australian people because they actually said they were going to have $5 billion of savings and now they are opposing their own savings. Then, on top of that, he has got $15 billion of new promises. Bankcard Bill. There is no limit on that bankcard right there.

Opposition members interjecting—

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