Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will speak to our government's surplus. We are on a credible pathway back to surplus—very credible.

Ms Butler interjecting—

I think the key word there is 'credible'. You would be very interested to know, Member for Griffith, that we are reducing the deficit each and every year from $35.1 billion down to just $6.9 billion. What always amazes me about the Labor Party is that they come into this chamber on the appropriation bills and say, 'Oh, the debt, the deficit: you've doubled the debt; you've doubled the deficit,' when they well know that when they were in government they locked in government expenditure. Government expenditure was growing at an unsustainable rate. They continued to promise the world and not fund it. They made promises in education that they could never fund beyond the forward estimates. There was simply no money. They made promises in relation to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, without allocating the money. Whenever you make promises but do not allocate the money, you really are not making a legitimate promise. It is on the never, never.

Of course, what the government is left with, what we inherited when we came to office, is a substantial debt and deficit. In fact, it is the largest single debt that any Australian government has ever inherited in the shortest space of time—six years. Considering the position the previous Labor government started from—

Ms Butler interjecting—

We warned you in the global financial crisis not to spend as much as you did. We actually told you that you were spending too much. You were spending too much. You did spend too much. The rate of stimulus was out of all proportion with what was needed in Australia. It is easy to spend it when it is not your money. It is easy to spend it when you do not earn it. It is easy to spend it when you have no intention of paying it back.

This government is fiscally responsible. We are on a credible path to surplus. Over the forward estimates there will be a $7 billion deficit. We will still be in deficit—that is absolutely true—but we can look any Australian in the eye and tell them that we have taken government debt left to us by Labor, a deficit year on year, down to a $7 billion deficit. That is pretty good progress, considering that the iron ore price continues to drop, leaving a revenue shortfall—which, of course, the former government was so keen to speak about—and it is at a time when the global economic outlook is quite poor and revenue is falling. So it is good progress to reduce the deficit to $7 billion over the forward estimates. And that is before we get to the point of starting to pay down Labor's debt, which, of course, is a whole new proposition in itself. We are borrowing every day $100 million just to fund the ordinary services of government—but, of course, for Labor that is not a problem. There is no spending cut that they approve of and no spending that they do not approve of. They want to keep spending and they do not want to make any cuts. It is easy when it is not your money. It is easy when you are borrowing it. It is easy when you have got no intention of paying it back. That is very, very easy. What a job to be given! People in this country would love to be in an organisation that can borrow money at will, spend it anyway they like and have no intention of ever paying it back. Nobody could operate like that. No business, no family, no budget structure in this country could sustain a Labor Party approach. I think every Australian inherently understands that. Every single Australian understands that.

Ms Butler interjecting—

I will take that interjection. The member for Griffith says that this debt is cheaper than equity, or she is making a point that you can use debt to finance various projects. That is absolutely true. But if you spend $667 billion of debt—

Ms Butler interjecting—

And what do you have to show for it, Member for Griffith? What is it? Do you have a new defence force? Do you have new submarines? No, you don't.

Ms Butler interjecting—

Yes, it is a $676 billion deficit. We could have 100 submarines for that price. We could have a whole Joint Strike Fighter fleet funded. We could have every piece of critical infrastructure in the country funded. Yes, the trillion-dollar backlog in infrastructure in Australia would almost be completed with that level of debt. Was that what was funded by the previous government? No. Can the member for Griffith give me in five seconds a list of things that were funded with that debt? Of course not. You racked it up. That was what was really wrong with the previous Labor government. You racked up debt, you racked up deficits but you had very little to show for it. That, of course, is the biggest problem that we have got, because if you do infrastructure that is enhancing for the economy, if you are financing things that make a difference, that is absolutely right. But this government was left with a debt and deficit legacy like no other—and we are taking steps to fix it in this budget.

So I fully support this appropriation bill. We are reducing the size of government over that period from a high under the previous Labor administration. Given the fact that we have been left with the worst set of numbers that any government has ever been given, it is pretty rich of members of the former government to look at us and say, 'Why haven't you fixed it?' Well, why haven't you helped us to fix it? They are the people now blocking the solution, and they are the people who created the problem. So why don't they come to the party? Either help us fix the problem or get out of the way.

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