Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation. What fiscal policy settings has the government put in place to put downward pressure on interest rates? Is the minister aware of any threats to these settings?

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for his question. The government has put in place a tough budget with a strong surplus of nearly $22 billion with the primary purpose of putting downward pressure on inflation and interest rates. That is the critical focus of the government’s fiscal policy. It is true to say that there are threats to the government’s fiscal policy, primarily coming from the opposition, especially manifested through their control of the Senate for the remainder of this month. The immediate response from the opposition to the government’s budget was to announce a range of positions and commitments that, had they been implemented, would have blown a $22 billion hole in the government’s budget surplus over four years. The opposition’s position has been changing on almost a daily basis. Almost every time the Leader of the Opposition hops up to speak there is another announcement, another statement and another indication of more free money for anybody who wants it. It is getting so bad that it is pretty hard to keep up.

Just when I thought it could not get any worse, lo and behold—you can always rely on them!—up pops the National Party. We know that the Leader of the Opposition indicated that he intends to cut the fuel excise—a promise he will never be able to deliver—then last week we had the member for Aston indicate that he wanted to double the cut in fuel excise that the Leader of the Opposition was promising. Not to be outdone, though, on the weekend, the Leader of the National Party indicated he wanted to quadruple the amount. Needless to say he gave no indication of where the money might come from, no indication of how many billions of dollars a year or how big a hole would be blown through the surplus, and no indication of what savings initiatives or indeed tax increases would be put in place to pay for it. After all, this is the man who indicated in February that the solution to Australia’s inflation problem was for the government to spend more money; this is the leader of the party that gave us Regional Partnerships. So perhaps we should not be that surprised. I have something of a soft spot for the National Party.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know that is a bit embarrassing to admit, but I do. I actually once handed out how-to-vote cards for the National Party. I would hasten to add that I was 10 years old at the time and they were a fair dinkum outfit called the Country Party in those days, whereas now, what have we got? The bedraggled, dishevelled, disgruntled little crew up there in what used to be ‘cockies corner’ is now ‘farmer’s phone booth’. There are hardly any of them left. They cannot even get the Liberal Party to take them over!

An incident having occurred in the gallery—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The gallery will come to order.

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have a word of advice for the Leader of the Opposition. He has problems taking advice from his shadow Treasurer, the member for Wentworth, who clearly has other matters on his mind. The last thing he should do is take financial and fiscal advice from the National Party. The phrase ‘sound fiscal management’ and the words ‘National Party’ are rarely found in the same sentence. We are committed on this side of the House to delivering a strong budget with a very substantial surplus that is designed to get inflation under control, to get prices under control and to put strong downward pressure on interest rates. The opposition, including the National Party, are spending all of their time wandering around Australia promising things left, right and centre that they have no hope of ever being able to implement or ever being able to afford.