Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

As we know, the Abbott government has doubled the budget deficit in just 12 months, after having promised to fix the budget. Of course, the change which is the subject of the Labor 2013-14 Budget Savings (Measures No. 1) Bill 2014 has already been factored into the forward estimates, meaning that, if the legislation does not pass before 30 June, there will be a further blow-out in the budget deficit, which already is at $35 billion. If you put aside how much worse the budget deficit is since the last election, even over the last 12 months, the budget deficit forecast for 2015-16 is now $35 billion.

The budget is built on a house of cards, as we all know: unfair measures which will never pass the Senate and a projected budget surplus built on a change of the accounting as to how the earnings of the Future Fund are recorded in the deficit. So what we have faced here is a difficult situation and a difficult decision. If this legislation does not pass before 30 June, the deficit will blow out even further. The opposition has reflected on this. The opposition note that the tax-free threshold trebled from $6,000 to $18,200 during our time in office. This change, while it would have been welcome, would have been a small percentage of that increase, so this is not something we would have done in office, despite the spin that the government has put on it.

The government has put a quite unfortunate spin on this particular matter, but the Labor Party is prepared to be responsible. Because of the blow-out in the budget deficit on the watch of the Treasurer, it is the case that we will facilitate and support this legislation. This will save the budget approximately $7 billion over 10 years, in addition to the measures I announced we would support—at the Press Club recently—which would save another $7 billion over 10 years. We are the party which takes a long-term view of these measures, unlike the Assistant Treasurer, at the table, who does not take a long-term view of these matters. He takes a short-term view.

Of course, we have already outlined alternative savings of $21 billion over the decade, which are available to the government if they choose to take them. If the government choose to be responsible, we will facilitate the passage of those pieces of legislation very quickly: our multinational tax package and our superannuation package. We will be prepared to facilitate those through the House, but of course the government have their head in the sand, taking an irresponsible approach to these measures.

We know that the Assistant Treasurer and the Treasurer do not agree with their Prime Minister. We know that they would rather see the government accept those measures, but they have been nobbled by the Prime Minister. They have been told to pull their head in—that they are not going to take the responsible point of view. This Prime Minister does not understand superannuation and does not support superannuation but is pretending and claiming to be a friend of superannuation.

For those reasons, this legislation will be facilitated.

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