Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to express my grave concern for the Australian people at the reckless way the Rudd government splashed around borrowed money as part of the latest stimulus package. The Liberal-National coalition has said from the very beginning that this decision to throw money around willy-nilly was ill thought out and rushed. Now that the bonus payments have been rolled out across Australia by the Australian Taxation Office and it is now clear who is receiving them and who is not, it has become even more obvious how hastily this decision was made. This is not surprising from a government that focuses everything on spin and nothing on substance. The tragedy is that many hardworking people have missed out on the bonus, yet they will be saddled with the debt just like every other Australian, while we have seen cash splashed upon people who have in fact left our shores.

Since the Prime Minister’s cash splash was announced I have had a number of calls to my electorate office from constituents who will not receive the bonus. They are angry because they feel there should have been a fair go for all and they see this as quite unfair. Despite working hard, they will not receive any money from the Prime Minister’s Santa sack. Understandably, they think it is an unfair decision by a Prime Minister who so often talked up a ‘fair go’ for all Australians during the election.

Belinda Neal (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit!

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know of siblings in one family, in fact twins, where one got the $900 and the other did not get anything. They think it is grossly unfair, I can assure the member for Robertson. Many hard-working people did not receive the bonus because they were on a low income and received their tax back through the low-income rebate. Even though they have been contributing to society through their employment, they did not receive the bonus payment because the Australian Taxation Office returned their tax. These are the very people who are currently struggling to pay bills, clear debts and buy essential items. They would have put the bonus to very good use, but instead they have missed out. They are understandably upset when they read the papers and find out that expatriate Australians are receiving the bonus to spend overseas, which will have no beneficial impact on our Australian economy, despite the Prime Minister claiming otherwise.

I have also heard from and spoken to many farmers who are still struggling through what is a very long and arduous drought for them and their families. Many are either running their farms at a loss or at such a low profit that they are not paying any tax. They have missed out on the $900 just because they did not pay any tax. These are the very people who feed our nation and work long hours. I remind members of this House that the food they buy from their supermarket shelves does not come from those shelves; it comes from hard-working farming families that deserves to be recognised for this bonus payment. Money certainly cannot bring rain, but I am sure this money would have been put to good use by our farmers—again, to help pay some of the bills, to clear debts, to put food on the table or even to buy much-needed small equipment for the farm to make a bit of a difference.

Perhaps what is even more frustrating for these hard-working people who have missed out is that their money is not from a budget surplus, it is borrowed. So not only did Kevin Rudd make the hasty decision to throw untargeted dollar bills around; he also borrowed the money to do so. One can perhaps understand the frustration being felt by our farmers battling through drought or by low-income workers struggling with the higher cost of living because, thanks to this government’s reckless spending, they and their children are now burdened with a $9,000 debt that one day they will have to pay back out of their taxes.

I am struck by the incompetence of this Labor government. In their hot pursuit of the next newspaper headline, they have managed to take Australia’s federal budget, the country’s household budget, and turn it from a $20 billion surplus—$20 billion in the bank—to a $58 billion deficit. That is a whopping $78 billion turnaround in just 18 months. What an achievement! Despite being handed an economy that was the envy of the world, the wonder down under, this Prime Minister, and the Labor Treasurer have accomplished the feat of taking us into a $300 billion debt—(Time expired)