Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This bill, the Labor 2013-14 Budget Savings (Measures No. 1) Bill 2014, implements Labor's 2012-13 budget policy. It gives effect to just one of the almost 100 announced but not implemented taxation measures left to us by Labor. We really need to understand what has brought us to this point: firstly, why we need to pass budget savings measures and, secondly, why we need to expose the hypocrisy of Labor in opposing what were actually their own budget savings measures.

We have seen evidence today in question time of Labor's absolute rank hypocrisy, raising questions about spending levels but, here tonight, blocking these budget savings and this legislation. It is a very clear demonstration of why the Australian people simply cannot trust anything Labor says. They were saying one thing at question time; they are doing another thing now. They says one thing and do the complete opposite. Why are Labor opposing their own budget savings measure? Labor have opposed and are opposing these budget savings measures for a very special reason, the incredibly profound reason that the Leader of the Opposition gave to Chris Uhlman when he was asked why they would not back their own budget cuts. It is because, simply:

… we're the Labor Party.

That is the reason why you do not back these budget savings measures. This exposes not only the hypocrisy of Labor but also their almost pathological denial of responsibility for the financial mess they created.

I remember it well. When I was first elected in 2007, Labor was the incoming government at that time. At the time, I looked at the smugness on their faces. Clearly they believed not only that they would be there in government forever but also that being in government was easy. Maybe it looked that way to start with. They had inherited a very sound balance sheet, one that any business would have been proud of as a starting point. There was $20 billion in surpluses and at least $40 billion in savings.

To Labor, obviously, at that time, they thought that government was simply about deciding which of their pet projects would they splash taxpayers money on. It looked easy. And didn't they just love that wasteful spending! Labor was addicted to spending. No matter what the problem or issue that arose, as a government, they had only one response. Kevin Rudd or Julia Gillard would stride into this parliament—I can remember it well—and simply throw some more taxpayers dollars at the problem, clearly of the belief that, by throwing money at a problem, the problem itself would disappear or simply that the Labor government could pretend that somehow they had fixed the problem because they had thrown money at it. That was the solution. It was government by the thought bubble of the day. It was that period in Australian politics. Every day I thought, 'What is Kevin Rudd's and Labor's latest spend-up or next you-beaut idea going to be today? What did those overnight focus groups tell them to do this time?' I remember thinking very clearly—it was really dreadful—that it was like they were kids in a candy shop with taxpayers' money. It was appalling.

As time went on in those first and second terms, I sat here in this place and I watched with absolute horror as Labor's spending spiralled completely out of control. It was just appalling. In my opinion, it was the time in Australian politics when there were so many billions being thrown around so easily that the actual quantum of how much a billion is—that thousand million—was actually lost. A billion became a Labor throwaway line. That is all it was. Perhaps, in some people's minds, it was more around a million in perceived cost, it was done so simply and easily.

Given the GFC, the coalition supported the first Australian stimulus package, that $10.4 billion announced in October 2008. But Labor did not stop there. That was not enough. The second stimulus package came in February 2009. It was $42 billion, and they sent $900 cheques to people—16,000 to deceased persons, and 27,000 went overseas. There was a wasteful $42 billion stimulus. What really appalled me was that they created the debt limit in 2008 and then treated it as a target—'We've gotta get there'—setting the cap first at $75 billion, then in 2009 increasing it to $200 billion and then $250 billion in May 2011, and in May 2012 they went to $300 billion. It was just constant waste and reckless spending.

We saw things such as the failed border protection policies, which included not just tragedy at sea but also $11.6 billion in blow-outs. We saw a similar thing with blow-outs in the Building the Education Revolution and up to $8 billion in waste. The pink batts program included well over $2.4 billion wasted, precious young lives lost, house fire after house fire and small business after small business on a rollercoaster boom and bust cycle caused by the pink batts debacle. This is, yet again, another Labor mess we are now having to clean up, as the Minister for Industry and Science said in question time today. The findings of the royal commission into the home insulation program was damning. Our government is providing the home insulation program industry payment scheme to help offset the very significant adverse financial impacts of what was a dreadful scheme. It was a mess. No wonder employment in small business fell from 52 per cent of the private sector workforce to 43 per cent. 519,000 jobs were lost in small business under Labor and there were fewer small businesses than during those Howard years.

We saw Labor throw away taxpayers' dollars repeatedly. They threw it around like confetti: the $900 cheques, as I said; the panicked cancellation of the solar homes program, which blew out by $850 million; $1,500 for a set-top box program, providing equipment to people when retailers said they could install them for $170; academic grants wasted, such as $145,000 to study sleeping snails and $578,000 to research a credit instrument in Florentine economic, social and religious life in the 1500s; and $300 million wasted in green loans. That is all before the National Broadband Network plan, which could have been done far more cost effectively and efficiently.

I have frequently referred to our experience of coming into government as kicking over each portfolio rock and finding another nest of poisonous snakes and spiders. That is exactly what it was for each one—one after the other. It was just like kicking over another nest of poisonous snakes and snipers; there was more to find every time. There is no doubt and no question that we inherited an unsustainable budget position from Labor. That is why this legislation is required.    Labor cannot deny that deficits alone inherited from the former government, outlined in the 2013-14 MYEFO, totalled $123 billion. It cannot be denied and swept under the carpet.

In spite of Labor's opposition to budget savings, we have now brought that down to $82 billion over the next four years. We know that government debit would have been $667 billion within a decade, with interest rates of $3 billion a month—70 per cent of which goes overseas. At that time, we were paying $l billion a month in interest under Labor. Under Labor's budget settings, the budget would never have gotten back to surplus and the debt would never even start to be repaid.

It does concern me that many people are of the belief that when the budget actually does get back to surplus then somehow automatically the debt has gone as well. You hear that out in the community. Somehow, there will be a clean slate, just because we get back to surplus for the first time. As we all know, nothing could be further from the truth. It will need and require year upon year of surpluses to even begin to pay back Labor's disastrous debt and deficit legacy.

I spend a lot of time in schools in my electorate, more often than not to deliver cyber safety presentations to students. I look at each one of these great young Australians and I think of the debt burden that they now bear. I am appalled by this. This is as a result of Labor's profligate spending; these young people will be forced to pay in one form or another. They actually have no choice. Even if we are making the tough decisions and doing our best in spite of Labor to make the tough decisions, Labor's debt stretches well into these young people's futures. It is something we cannot escape. It is that legacy that Labor has left.

It is time for Labor to take at least some responsibility for the debt and deficit by supporting this bill and other measures. We also really need to expose their further spending. Even in opposition, we see further Labor spending. They have already committed to $58.6 billion of additional spending. As we heard the Treasurer say in question time today, the Leader of the Opposition spent $220 million a minute in his budget in reply speech. Thank goodness, he actually only spoke for 29 minutes and not the full 30 minutes, otherwise he would have spent another $220 million! It really must concern young people that Labor is also announcing more taxes, such as the reintroduction of the carbon tax and a superannuation tax policy that could affect 125,000 Australians within the next decade. Unfortunately, we know that Labor sees superannuation as their own personal ATM. It cost superannuants $9 billion in the six years of Labor, including a $3.3 billion hit on low-income earners.

We also know our kids bank accounts are actually not safe either. In 2012, when Bill Shorten was Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, Labor cut the time that inactive bank accounts were declared unclaimed from seven years to three. This saw millions of dollars held in thousands of active Australian savings accounts transferred to the Labor government. This caused real financial distress for many Australians. I heard it in my office and I know most members on our side heard that repeatedly. That included older Australians and community groups, who were not able to access their own funds when they needed them most. In 2011-12, around $70 million was transferred to ASIC as unclaimed money. In 2012-13, after the former government's changes, 156,000 accounts—worth around $550 million—were transferred to ASIC. Labor imposed large costs and inconvenience on people who were then forced—you had no choice—to go through a time consuming process to try to reclaim your money. That took at least six months in some instances.

I am a small business person and I am from a community and volunteer background. One thing that I have learned in my years in business and in the community is this: whenever there is a problem, the first step in dealing with that problem is to admit that there is a problem; and the second step is deciding what you are going to do to fix the problem and how you will go about it. Not only does Labor refuse to admit that they created a massive intergenerational problem for our young people but they are absolutely, wilfully determined not to be part of a solution for the Australian people. We have no choice but to live within our means. I support the bill before the House.

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