Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion that was previously brought before this place by the member for Lyne. It was not Dr Parkinson or Mr Tune who promised a surplus over 500 times; it was Treasurer Wayne Swan and the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, promising to deliver a surplus of $1.5 billion this year, yet delivering a deficit of more than $19 billion. It was not Dr Parkinson or Mr Tune who said the debt ceiling would only need to be $75 billion, only to raise it three additional times to a staggering $300 billion, with the prospect of further increases over the forward estimates; it was the Treasurer and the Prime Minister. It was not Dr Parkinson or Mr Tune who told us the deficit days are behind us and that deficits were temporary, only to have a minimum of seven years of deficits, totalling over $220 billion; it was the Treasurer and the Prime Minister.

It was the Treasurer and the Prime Minister who delivered a carbon tax they promised not to introduce, who dumped the centrepiece of last year's budget before this year's budget—that is, the increase in family tax benefit part A—who guaranteed company tax cuts they never delivered, who cut defence spending to the lowest level as a percentage of GDP since 1938, who made Australia the third largest recipient of Australian foreign aid due to its $10 billion border protection failures, and who is making Australian taxpayers foot the $8 billion interest bill on their borrowings. The list goes on.

This leads me to ask one very pertinent question: given the track record of this Treasurer, if he were your suburban accountant, how happy would you be? So when the member for Lyne calls on the House to 'express full confidence in the Department of the Treasury and Finance,' well might we have confidence in them. But there is no evidence to suggest we ought to have confidence in this Treasurer or in this government. (Time expired)