Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like my colleagues, I thank the opposition for raising this matter of public importance. It is almost a Dorothy Dixer, because the cost-of-living pressures for Australian households and families are what this government is focused on. The member for Jagajaga raised a couple of interesting points. She said, 'Take a sledgehammer to the budget.' Think about this statement from Wayne Swan:

The Government shouldn't be chasing the same resources as the private sector—that would only add to price pressures, and ultimately feed through to the cost of living for Australian households.

What is more important is Labor converted the records surpluses of the Howard government into record deficits. Labor delivered around $200 billion of deficits, with $123 million of deficits to come. Labor promised a surplus in 2012-13 on over 500 occasions, but what they delivered were more deficits.

Currently government bills exceed income by over $100 million a day. So you do have to take a sledgehammer at times to a budget, because we cannot continue to live beyond our means. We are in this problem because Labor would not stop spending. They even tried to lock in billions of dollars of new spending, earmarked for years after they left office. The International Monetary Fund recently confirmed that for the six-year period from 2012 to 2018 Australia was forecast to have the largest percentage increase in spending of the 17 IMF advanced economies profiled.

It was also interesting to listen to the member for Jagajaga talking about the impact on families. But Labor did not consider single mothers who were moved from pensions that gave them an income to Newstart. Labor left them in poverty. So do not come into the chamber and be hypocritical in that sense.

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