Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

When I sit in the chamber I am often absolutely stunned by the lack of connectivity I see from those in the opposition when they talk about ordinary Australians. In the diverse and sometimes disadvantaged areas of Gilmore, I work with and talk to ordinary Australians every day. Those opposite are under the delusion that this budget is somehow unfair. Good grief! I will tell you what is unfair—it is the debt they delivered last time they were in government. This is what Ian, from my electorate, has to say:

Make no mistake, the election will be won on the grounds of who can manage the economy best. As an observer of politics over 50 years, the experience of Labor has always been irresponsible financial management. It would be a disaster to see Labor in charge of the Treasury benches once more. We hurt whilst they were in power. Things are tight now. Australia would face ruin if the same incompetents who made the mess in the first place were back in power.

When the Rudd-Gillard government came to power in 2007 in the guise of being fiscal conservatives, they blew away Australia's nest egg in the most deplorable way. There will be cries of, 'But the GFC hit and we had to save the Australian economy!' In the first instance, that was correct. But then to go on and spend and spend and spend long after the GFC was over and done with was totally irresponsible. It left absolutely no financial buffer for the future of Australia. Well, let me tell you, that was unfair—to us, to our children, to their children and to our older Australians in their retirement years. And then in 2013 the Labor government's budget put in ticking financial time bombs with an explosive shrapnel effect that we are still stuck with today.

Often when the subject of budget deficits is mentioned I hear the shrill mantra of, 'You doubled the deficit!' emanating from the opposition benches. It reminds me of the complete lack of fiscal understanding by many of those sitting opposite. If you have a business—and I do not expect many of those opposite to understand this, because there is a distinct lack of business expertise there—and you lock in expenditure items at the end of the financial year and borrow additional funds for a project, then you have an increased debt as a result of the outstanding creditor and interest payments. We are paying off a million dollars a day in interest on Labor's debt. Talk about unfair! That was totally unfair to not just the incoming government in September 2013 but the financial sustainability of our nation as a whole. I deplore dishonesty at any level, but trying to sell a mythological set of figures like that was quite amoral.

What was unfair was the carbon tax, which created electricity price hikes for families and businesses, along with job losses in mum-and-dad small businesses. What was unfair was the mining tax, which was not just a thought bubble of extraordinary proportions but the cash cow for proposed education and health expenditure based on revenue, on 'taxes received', that never—and, I repeat, never—eventuated. This is exactly the same as telling your children that you are going to win the lottery. Then you buy each of them a new car, take them to Disneyland, buy new iPads and computers and take that holiday you all want. Oops! You did not win the lottery. But it is all the government's fault. You cannot go out on a spending spree. That is unfair.

Let's get this right: Australians want consistency. They want the chance for their families to have a better life, and you cannot do that while you are paying off mammoth debts, like those accumulated under Labor, to overseas nations. We as a nation must live within our means. The people we know as ordinary Australians are the hardworking small business owners and wage earners, who are all about raising their families and providing a better life for their kids. Some businesses will welcome the tax cuts so that they can reinvest in their livelihood, pay off their mortgage—because that is what they have used to finance it—buy equipment and employ more people. That is fair.

The PaTH program initiative was described just this week in the 2016 budget. The program for vulnerable young people having trouble breaking into the job market is a transformational change and very welcome for the 12 per cent of our unemployed young people who do not have a working adult role model in their home. This is fair. It will give workplace preparation and assisted work trials to these people, yet they will still receive income support as well as additional pay. This takes the risk factor away from getting a job—where the job may or may not work out, and then they are struggling to get back onto support.

The budget is just the beginning of good things to come. We have only just begun to take advantage of the potential in our nation with the free trade agreements, the recently announced business incentives, innovation platforms and a plan for economic stability to take Australia to a healthy financial future. Now, that is fair.

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