Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I want to again address the issue of economic management, which is so important not just to the electors of Casey but to electors right across Australia. The Leader of the Opposition and federal Labor desperately want Australians to believe that they could slip seamlessly into the driver’s seat and continue down the road of economic responsibility. But to believe them, Australians have to trust them not only with the management of money in Canberra but also with their own financial security and future. That is why to know what federal Labor would do can only be judged by how they governed in the past and how they have approached policy decisions in opposition.

I turn, first of all, to federal Labor’s record in government. In their last six budgets they took net government debt from $16.1 billion to $96 billion. Their last budget was in deficit by $10.3 billion. Their mismanagement saw interest rates peak at 17 per cent and unemployment hit 11 per cent—one million people, or 10 AFL grand final crowds who lost their jobs. There were not too many rights at work for them. Each year $8½ billion was spent just paying the interest on Labor’s whopping $96 billion debt.

That brings me to Labor’s approach in opposition. After leaving this trail of destruction and losing office, far from admitting error or adopting a new approach, Labor quickly did exactly what Labor knows and does best. It dug in and maintained a mindless political picket line in the federal parliament to oppose every single measure and reform needed to improve our economy.

In government Labor destroyed the village. For the last 11 years of opposition they have tried to sabotage the rebuilding of the village and now they ask Australians to put them in charge of it. Trusting Labor with Australia’s economy and trusting Labor with your own financial security is about as sensible as asking the local graffiti gang to look after the railway station or the bus stop. It can only end one way. Labor’s vision for the future of Australia is in fact the Australia of 1996 and before. So when they say, ‘It’s time,’ they say it is time to go back to 1996. They want to take us on a road back to higher taxes, higher interest rates, wasteful spending, higher unemployment, higher deficits and union control. This is not the place Australians would want to take their family, their business or their country. But under the Leader of the Opposition and his frontbench that is their future.