Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, and maybe there was the hope to stimulate the global economy because, at that stage, there was one particular Prime Minister who I think did believe that, ultimately, he was going to rule the planet. So maybe he was trying to stimulate the global economy. It is not a bad observation, because the grandiose plans could potentially have led to us ruling the world in a rather perverse and deluded sort of way. But they are just some of the examples of what we are trying to fix.

What was the result of this? When we came into government, we were looking at deficits over the forward estimates of MYEFO that totalled $123 billion. Government debt, if left unchecked and allowed to continue on the inherited trajectories, would have been $667 billion within a decade. Those numbers are quite staggering. That is what we are trying to fix, and I am confident that we can fix it. We did so when we were last in government. When we came to government as a coalition in 1996, we faced $96 billion worth of debt and we were able to fix that. But the parliament was prepared to assist; the parliament was prepared to help. In this sad instance, unfortunately, the Labor Party does not want to carry any moral responsibility for what it did when in government for those two disastrous terms. Yet, previously, there was a willingness to play a part. The sad thing about the state of the nation that we face now is that the Labor Party is not willing to roll up its sleeves and assist in fixing the job that it messed up so badly. When we came to power in 1996, we were able to fix the problem, and when we left office in 2007 there was no net debt and the budget was in surplus.

We will fix it again—we are determined to fix it again. We are determined to get the budget back into surplus and determined to start paying down the debt. The Treasurer, in his excellent budget of a couple of weeks ago, clearly outlined how we are going to do that. I once again appeal to the Labor Party: please, just lend us a hand with the measures which you supported in government as savings measures and will not now support. Just change your mind on that; it will give you some credibility as an opposition. If you cannot find a way to do that, sadly, you are going to be seen as still the problem and not in any way part of the solution. The Treasurer in his budget speech took a two-pronged approach. He wants to continue down the savings path. He wants to make sure that spending is kept in check, but he also wants to make sure that we grow the economy at the same time. That, at its heart, is what the small business package was all about, and it was very, very well received across the Australian community. It was heartily received in my electorate of Wannon, where both small business and farmers will be beneficiaries. I have already spoken to small businesses and farmers, and they are very keen to utilise the measures in the small business package. So I am looking forward to seeing a stimulus from this. It is not a stimulus of the type you would get from sending cheques to dead people or those oversees; this is a real stimulus that will see small business confidence grow. They will then look to invest and employ, and we will see sustainable economic growth into the future. That is what the budget was all about, as well as making sure that we continue to keep spending in check. Part of the issue is to, hopefully, get the Labor Party to change their mind on the budget measures that the Labor Party supported when they were in government, which they are now opposing. They are an important part of it—they are an important part of us starting to address those $123 billion of accumulated deficits over the forward estimates, so that the $667 billion worth of debt which would have accumulated over the next decade can be addressed also.

I say this to the Leader of the Opposition, returning to where I started regarding what he said in that now infamous interview with Chris Uhlmann: we know you are the Labor Party. What we would like to see from you, though, is a bit of a change of direction to take some moral responsibility for the damage you wrought on the nation's finances and for you to say, 'Yes, we do take some responsibility, and we're going to change our mind and support the government on these savings measures.'

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