Brett Whiteley (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to my good friend and colleague from one of the other Tasmanian seats, the seat of Lyons, for warming of the crowd. I would like to thank Mr Hutchinson for that. It is a great opportunity to take the stage after him, because he made some very valid points. This man, who represents the seat of Lyons exceptionally well, fully understands—like every other member on this side of the House—that we have a job in front of us. We have a big job in front of us. We have been trying to do that job for 2½ years. God willing, and with the support of the Australian people, we will continue to do it for another three and a bit years.

The member who just concluded his contribution very clearly articulated the state of the nation's finances, so I do not necessarily need to go over that ground, other than to say that he is spot on. We have, on this side of the House, since our election in September 2013, been trying to do everything we possibly can to get this country's finances under control. 'Under control' is very simple in its methodology. It means that you spend less than you earn. It is a pretty easy principle for every Australian to understand: you spend less than you earn. We have all been brought up that way, I would hope. And we all understand the ramifications, should we enter into a lifestyle that continually leads to spending more than we earn, because we end up with big debts that we cannot pay and that cost interest that is then taken out of our disposable income, which leaves us with less money to spend on food, in a family sense, or less money to spend on health, education or infrastructure, in a governmental sense.

It is pretty well standard accounting practice that you try very hard to spend less than you earn. But that was not the case with the previous government, and the ramifications were left to us to fix up. As I often say, every morning when the alarm clock goes off we still find ourselves having to spend $100 million more than we earn. That will go on tomorrow and the day after and the day after, until such time as a credible government—a government that is hell-bent on living out that model of lifestyle of spending less than you earn—gets it under control. We have worked exceptionally hard, up against some very strong headwinds by those opposite, to try to find ways to bring about budget constraint and to try to find ways to bring the budget closer and closer to a surplus position.

It may be of interest to those listening to know that the welfare bill in this country now exceeds $150 billion—

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