Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the Assistant Treasurer for his statements and for the work he's doing to strengthen Australia's financial system to improve our economy, and the budget is a great example of that. We have just listened to the member for Groom ask the hard-hitting question, 'Where is the Treasurer?' That's his opening question in a session designed to be a forum for scrutiny of the budget in detail. He didn't go through any questions about the budget of any substance. He didn't ask us about the budget forecasts. He didn't ask us about the domestic outlook. He didn't question any of the global economic aggregates. He had no questions about the fiscal position. He had no questions about any appropriations or about the long-term fiscal strategy. His concept of using the parliament to provide scrutiny on the budget and deliver questions in detail was to provide a rant at a high level about: 'Where is the Treasurer?'

We have an important role as parliamentarians to use the customs and procedures of this parliament to provide input, and, in the case of the opposition, scrutiny on the budget. What we have seen over the course of the last two speakers is people who appear to have not even read the budget—people who don't have any concept of what is in the budget, don't have any analysis of the content of the budget papers and are unable to ask a single question about the contents of those papers. It's as if they haven't read it, showing contempt for an important role of public oversight. One of the reasons why this budget is so unnerving and upsetting for those opposite is that this budget delivers a budget surplus.

It sticks in the craw of those opposite, because if there is a raison detre of the Liberal Party, if there is a reason for them to go home and sleep at night, it is because they hold onto the core belief that they deliver budget surpluses. That is the kind of warm, fuzzy feeling—admittedly long in the distant history now—that gives them a sense that all the other detrimental things they do to Australia and to Australians are okay because they deliver budget surpluses. So sitting here and watching the Labor Party in its first year in office delivering the budget surplus that they couldn't, I feel for them. I know how painful that might be. It is like the pea under the mattress, you know? You just can't quite sleep at night because something does not feel quite right.

An honourable me mber interjecting—

The Princess allusion was intended. They came so close. This is the tragedy. They were within reach of it, they felt. They even printed all the merchandise, the final validation of all the rhetoric about debt and deficits over the course of the Abbott government and the Turnbull government and the Morrison government. They came so close and to be not able to deliver it was a setback. It was a blow. I feel for them. And then to have to watch the Labor government deliver a surplus in its first year of government, that must be tough. So I can see why it is hard for them to read the budget papers. It is hard for them to read about the surplus. It is hard for them to read about the low rate of unemployment. It is hard for them to read about the concrete steps that this government is taking to tackle the real challenges that Australia has.

But nonetheless, those opposite have to get over that and they have to read it. They have to overcome the pain of reading about the government's budget surplus, reading about the positive economic initiatives and conditions that the government has put in place, because that is their job. And if they don't read the budget, if they don't read through the pages about that surplus and about those positive economic conditions and those initiatives for the future, they won't be able to come into forums like this and ask substantive questions that provide real scrutiny on the elements of the budget.

So I would encourage those opposite to overcome their trepidation, overcome the significant trigger warnings that they will inflict on themselves by reading about this Labor surplus, actually read the budget, go through it and do what my kids do—close their eyes over the bits that are especially painful when they are watching a scary movie. You can skip the bit about the budget surplus forecast this year if you have to. Read it in detail and come into forums like this and ask substantive questions.

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