David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think I will commence this discussion by going through the centre of that earlier argument about what a cut is.

To me, a cut means that what you get one year is reduced the next year. It is not what is hypothesised out in blue sky or on a whiteboard, or what is on the back of a beer coaster. The so-called cuts in health and education are the first thing to take issue with. A cut means that next year is less than this year. That is what everyone works on in life.

In transfers to the states for the public hospital system, the federal government is giving $3.8 billion more, or 25 per cent more, over the next four years. That is more. That is a plus sign—plus $3.8 billion more to the states for the hospital system, or 25 per cent over the next four years.

In education, as the Minister for Education has reiterated many times, the so-called 'cuts' are actually eight per cent more, eight per cent more, six per cent more and four per cent more. They are all pluses. When you go to the school of 'ouzo economics' and you graduate, you are given a recipe book and that talks about hypothetical promises that are never in the budget papers in years 5 and 6. That is the first lecture you go to. Not only do you learn how not to manage a budget you also learn all these obfuscations.

In the health space we have also delivered certainty. We have the Fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement and we have the PBS funding legislation through, and that delivers certainty. The health system depends on the PBS and it depends on the pharmacy system, and those budgetary measures have been managed. It was difficult but they were managed well.

The other thing you learn when you go to the school of ouzo economics is about debt and deficit. You create a myth about how well you have managed the budget by putting ridiculous projections in, like a $17 billion deficit. Then you get control of the Treasury and you find out that really the $17 billion deficit is a $47 billion deficit. That is one of the things that we campaigned on, to bring the debt and deficit under control. We have reduced the daily overspend from $133 million a day to well under $100 million a day. And that is going to continue.

We also said that we were going to stop the boats. That might seem to be a bit of an embarrassment for the members of the opposition, but we did. We put in place policies and enacted them, and we have stopped the wicked trade that led to at least 1,100 deaths at sea.

The other thing that we have done is the roads of the 21st century. Every time I drive into town from my home I go past roadworks on the Pacific Highway that account for about a billion dollars, just in the electorate of Lyne. We have also delivered on three new bridges in the Taree local council area and we are starting to repair the Gloucester Road. Bucketts Way, another major roadway in the Lyne electorate, is being delivered $8 million and another $8 million next year.

Many people in the Lyne electorate are small businessmen and women, and we have delivered a small business boost with a 1½ per cent reduction in their tax rate. That is ongoing. The accelerated depreciation of equipment up to $20,000 is delivering dividends and improving the bottom line for lots of small businesses—that is the exact opposite. We are giving small businesses the power to choose to spend their money wisely and to get an accelerated depreciation rather than the opposition's method of sending $900 cheques in the mail to people who are dead or overseas. My goodness! We have done so many things to help small business. A lot of the small businesses are agricultural enterprises. All the changes in depreciation— (Time expired)

See this speech in context