Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation. Why is it important that the 2010 budget and forthcoming budgets be framed within the government’s fiscal discipline rules?

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

I thank the member for Solomon for his question. I also say how delighted I am to see Mary Easson in the chamber today, and I am sure I speak on behalf of many members in saying that. The government has put in place some very strict fiscal rules in order to ensure that we get the budget back in a strong position after the impact of the global financial crisis. The rules that we have put in place are these. First, we will not allow tax as a proportion of the total economy to go above the level we inherited from the former government. What has happened? The levels of tax as a proportion of the economy now and across the forward estimates are substantially lower than the level we inherited from the Howard government. Second, we will not allow spending growth to go beyond a two per cent real increase until such time as the budget returns to surplus. What has happened? We have adhered in this budget to that rule and we have extended it so that now that rule will continue to apply until such time as the budget surplus reaches one per cent of GDP.

Third, when tax revenue recovers from the impact of the global financial crisis—and it has partly recovered—we will not spend that revenue but allow it to help drive the budget back into surplus early. What has happened? That is precisely what has occurred. Finally, new spending will be offset by saving. What has happened? Across the forward estimates period, the aggregate excess of saving above spending is $544 million—half a billion dollars. So all these rules have been adhered to, and one of them has not only been adhered to but been extended.

The result is that we are back in surplus three years ahead of schedule in three years time and the level of debt Australia has will be half of what was initially projected. It will be 6.1 per cent of GDP, which is less than one-tenth of the average of developed world economies.

I notice that the shadow Treasurer, the member for North Sydney, was on Insiders last weekend indicating that he would set the bar for the government about when we returned to surplus. He said that it would be reasonable to return to surplus within three or four years. Guess what, Mr Speaker: we have jumped over his bar, we have leaped over that bar, and got the budget heading towards surplus in three years.

I take this opportunity to welcome the new shadow minister for finance, the member for Goldstein, to the podium. He is my fifth shadow minister for finance. I have had five. And who knows—there may be more. I am up against a basketball team. We have had five shadow finance ministers. I shared a platform with the new shadow finance minister last night on Lateline and this morning at the annual accountants breakfast. Do you know the interesting thing, Mr Speaker: in both of these contributions I do not recall the words ‘debt and deficit’ passing the lips of the shadow finance minister. Why? Because the infamous debt and deficit scare campaign is dead—stone dead. What has killed it? The budget is heading back to surplus three years ahead of schedule and debt is peaking at six per cent of GDP. The scare campaign of the opposition has been exposed for the giant fraud that it is.

The opposition has a single political strategy. It is simple and it is straightforward. It is to block, blame and bluster. That is all that the Leader of the Opposition and his team are contributing to Australian politics. There is a lot of rhetoric, there is a lot of fluff and there is a lot of flim flam, but we are approaching the business end of the season where the Australian community is going to start asking for some detail. We have had virtually no detail from the Leader of the Opposition yet, but he has a big test on Thursday night and that is to come up with some detail and to come up with some specific costed savings—not just one-liners and colourful, glib grabs but some specific costed savings.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, a point of order on relevance and also on aspersions being cast on a member: I was present at that breakfast this morning and the shadow finance minister certainly did mention debt and deficit.

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

The member for Mackellar!

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

I return to the point I was making. The budget rules the government put in place put a real constraint on spending. They require governments and prospective governments to match spending with savings. We have had a sequence of dog-ate-my homework excuses about when we are going to get some serious savings and when we are going to get some explicit commitments about how the opposition is going to pay for all the promises it is putting forward, but thus far we have had very few commitments. By this stage in 2007, the then Leader of the Opposition, now the Prime Minister, had $3 billion worth of explicit savings commitments out there, virtually all of which have since been delivered.

I have a couple of final tips for the Leader of the Opposition. Investments do not hit the bottom line and therefore cannot be used for spending. So, whether it is the Australian Rail Track Corporation equity investment—

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Or the NBN?

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

The member for North Sydney!

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

or the National Broadband Network, you cannot spend the proceeds by cancelling them. You might like to come up with a glib one-liner suggesting that you can, but you cannot spend the proceeds. My final suggestion is that, if you want to be treated seriously, you have got to have some costed, four-year, over the forward estimates savings in your budget reply to show where the money is coming from.