Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

It is always a pleasure to have an opportunity to respond to appropriation bills and talk about a range of things that are important to the economy in this country and to ordinary people. Probably nothing would be more important right now than what is contained in the budget and what is not contained in the budget and to remind people very clearly of the type of government that we have in Canberra right now. Make no mistake, this is a spend, spend, spend government. This is a government that is spending taxpayers' dollars. It is spending ordinary Australians' hard-earned money—but it does not have any money; it is borrowing the money. This is a government that is spending, spending and spending, but to spend it is borrowing money and borrowing money like never before. There will be a few National Party and Liberal Party members with a bit of a smirk on their faces and laughing, but, unfortunately, their own budget papers detail the reality of how much they are spending and how much they are borrowing.

If, in the first Liberal budget—we have had two now from Joe Hockey—$17 billion of deficit was an absolute tragedy, was bad enough and was the end of the world, how would you be if, 12 months later, the same Treasurer doubled it and delivered a $35 billion deficit? How would you be assessed? You would have to answer the question: how are you paying for your programs? How are the government paying for their programs? On top of the debt that was already there, they have just borrowed a further $17½ billion. We are further into debt. The deficit is bigger and the debt is bigger. The deficit has blown out; it has doubled, not since the election but just since the last Liberal budget. In two Liberal budgets we have seen the deficit double from $17½ billion to over $35 billion now.

If that were not bad enough—if you needed more evidence—we have seen debt. Do you remember the debt? That was that really big thing: debt-deficit, debt-deficit. What has happened to debt? Has it come down? Is the trajectory tending down? Is there a little less spending? No, the debt has gone up. In fact, it has gone up massively, not since the election but since the last budget. In only 12 months of Joe Hockey managing the economy, he has managed to blow out debt by a further $39 billion. If, under Labor, $13 billion of deficit was the end of the world—that was it; there was nothing that could possibly be measured as worse than that; it was a crisis and an emergency—what do you call $35 billion? That is the question that the government has to answer.

We have seen a situation where there was some debt and there was some deficit, and we will take responsibility for those things, but Joe Hockey came in on the promise, as did Tony Abbott, that there would be a surplus every single budget. That was the promise. The promise was: every single budget there will be a surplus—'In the first 12 months, I will deliver a surplus, and in every single budget after that.' Joe Hockey said it and he said it more than once, but he has done the exact opposite. I know Liberal members will be confused because they do not want to look at the facts—they just want to look at what they tell each other rather than the facts.

Let us have a look at other measures, the real ones, the ones that are measured not by the parliament or the Labor Party or the Liberal Party but, perhaps, by Westpac consumer sentiment, which is long running. Let us say it is credible, because as soon as you say anything against this government that does not go their way suddenly it is not credible anymore. In September 2013 consumer confidence was hovering around 110 points. There was a slight bounce at or on or after the election, in 2013, and from there it went downhill at a rapid rate of knots and it kept going down. Why would that have been? In fact, it got to some of the lowest levels seen since they have been recording consumer-confidence levels.

It was not just consumers but also small business who thought this was really terrible. It was bad enough during the global financial crisis, when Labor actually stood up for small business, actually delivered some significant funding programs—direct assistance. I know the Liberals and Nationals will be really surprised when I use these words, but the programs were called 'instant asset write-off'. It sounds familiar. It sounds like what has just been reintroduced in this budget! It is just amazing. I have always had the view that there is nothing left to invent when it comes to government, because government reinvents itself every single day. When we see the Liberal Party introducing budgets, they have just reinvented it. It is as though it is the first time we have ever heard of an instant asset write-off. So they reintroduce a good Labor policy and, of course, Labor will be supporting it.

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