John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Labor 2013-14 Budget Savings (Measures No. 1) Bill 2014. This bill repeals the second round of carbon tax related personal income-tax cuts that are due to start on 1 July this year. Prior to forming government, the coalition made a commitment to the people to keep the first round of personal income-tax cuts and associated pension and benefit increases, and we have kept that promise. We have also delivered major savings to every Australian household by removing the carbon tax, which will save the typical Australian family $550 this year.

The second-round cuts were first announced by the member for Lilley, in his previous capacity as Treasurer, when handing down the 2013-14 federal budget. The former government never bothered to legislate this budget measure, which has added to nearly 100 announced but unimplemented taxation measures left to us by Labor. On coming to government we attempted to legislate this Labor measure as a matter of urgency. You would think that implementing Labor's own policy would be one of the easier things to get through parliament, yet despite twice being introduced to parliament—as part of the package of carbon tax repeal bills—Labor, each time, voted against its own measure. It would be too much to ask those opposite to outline an alternative plan to pay this, despite the measures now being worth $2.8 billion over the next four years.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Labor has stood in the way of budget measures that they themselves announced. In fact, Labor measures that Labor now oppose total $6.5 billion. These include the change of Labor's student start-up scholarships to a loan repayable through HECS, a $2.1 billion savings measure; the change to apply an efficiency dividend to university funding, a $1.2 billion savings measure; the abolition of the discount for paying HECS fees up-front, a $336 million savings measure; and this $2.8 billion budget repair measure. These savings now form part of the $58.6 billion black hole for the Labor Party.

Last week the Parliamentary Budget Office announced that the previous government left $101 billion in measures yet to be legislated. This would have to be extended even further if the myriad announcements made by the opposition leader, during his budget-in-reply speech, were implemented, despite no mention of where the money is coming from. The Treasurer has calculated that the opposition leader spent $220 million a minute in his budget-in-reply speech. I cannot remember $220 million in savings in the entire speech, yet he had expenditure of $220 million per minute. It is good he did not speak any slower.

It is simply beyond any reasonable person's comprehension that Labor can announce savings measures and then block them. They can complain about government expenditure programs and then block measures that would reduce government expenditure. I know that very few on the opposite benches have any practical experience in business, but I can assure them that behaviour like this would simply not be tolerated in the business world. Their shareholders would have them sacked and on the street in no time—much as our wise voters did 18 months ago.

Earlier today, in question time, the Treasurer spoke of how he wishes he had inherited a budgetary position as strong as that left to Labor by the Howard government in 2007. With a healthy surplus of $40 billion in the bank, the previous Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Labor governments were the worst economic vandals this nation has ever seen. After six years of Labor mess, the coalition was elected to fix the problem and, through a range of legislative measures—like this bill—we are doing exactly that.

The $123 billion in deficits we inherited has now been brought down to $82 billion over the next four years. Government debt, if left unchecked and allowed to continue on the inherited trajectories, would have grown to $667 billion within a decade. The $133 million in interest repayments we needed to make every day of the year, just to maintain that debt, has now been reduced to $96 million. That number is still way too high but we can already see that the budget is being repaired, that we are on a credible path to surplus—something a Labor government has not achieved during the entire lifetime of the member for Longman.

It is clear that under the budget settings left by Labor the budget would never have reached a surplus and the debt would never have been paid off. These achievements by this government are despite the iron-ore price falling from $120 to around $54 a tonne and the headwinds out of the global economy, and both the Treasurer and Minister for Finance deserve our compliments for steering the ship back in the right direction, tacking magnificently.

At the last election the Australian voters gave the coalition a strong mandate to change course and put the budget back onto a secure and sustainable footing. The repair of the budget, as achieved, in part, through bills like this one, must happen responsibly and at pace. Do not just take my word for that—indeed, you can go back to the former Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister the Member for Lilley, in his budget speech, in 2011. He said:

… meandering back to surplus—would compound the pressures in our economy and push up the cost of living for pensioners and working people.

So the coalition government is getting on with the job of building a strong and prosperous economy.

We have designed a raft of responsible and fair budget measures for this parliament to enact. Since the last election our economy has created a quarter of a million new jobs and the centrepiece of this budget is a plan to create even more

Jobs are now growing at well over three times the pace under Labor. We are cutting the small business company tax rate to the lowest in almost 50 years, and for two years we will be giving all small businesses an immediate tax deduction on any asset they buy costing up to $20,000. This will benefit more than 95 per cent of all Australian businesses.

The budget also delivers for families. Our Jobs for Families reform will deliver a simpler, more affordable and more accessible childcare system, giving parents more choice when it comes to balancing work and family. Low- and middle-income families will be $1,500 a year better off if they are using the childcare system. Families using the childcare system in 2017 on family incomes of between $65,000 and $170,000 will be around $30 a week better off.

The Abbott coalition government budget in 2015 delivers for families, for small business and for our economy. It is responsible, measured and fair. It cuts taxes, it will create jobs and it delivers a responsible path back to surplus. This pathway to prosperity all starts with bills like this. I urge those opposite to stop obstructing, go back to their own measures and support this bill in order to help us get our nation back on track and renew the meaning in our name of 'Commonwealth of Australia' so it is not 'Australia: a nation of common debt'.

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