Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question now is that the amendment be agreed to. I call the member for Hughes in continuation.

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the great concerns I have had during this debate on the Tax Bonus for Working Australians Repeal Bill 2013 is the delusion—the most dangerous delusion—that I have heard from speakers on the other side of the chamber. They have attempted to create the fiction that somehow Labor's reckless spending over the last 5½ years has so-called saved Australia from the so-called GFC. They are trying to spin the fiction that their raining down $900 cheques upon people, their pink batts scheme and their building of overpriced school halls were something that saved this nation from the so-called GFC. And I say 'so-called GFC' because, if you look at our nearest neighbours, China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia, these countries in our region all continued to grow while the countries of Europe and North America went into recession.

The true reasons why Australia did better than Europe and North America during that period were several, and none of them have anything to do with the reckless spending of the Labor government. Firstly, it should be noted that in the year 2008-09 our GDP per capita actually fell. Our GDP per capita in that year fell by 0.8 per cent. It was only because of increasing levels of migration that our overall GDP grew, but the slice of the pie that every person received during that period was smaller. However, we succeeded during that period because of the strength of our region. The Chinese economic machine hardly took its foot off the accelerator. We had experienced before that a decade of strong growth through the policies of the Howard and Costello government. We had the lowering of interest rates. Our interest rates declined by three per cent, putting a lot of money into the pockets of people who were paying off mortgages. We also had a substantial fall in the currency. Our currency fell to a bit less than US60c, and this stimulated our export industry. We also had strong prudential regulations, the legacy of the good policies of Peter Costello, the former Treasurer. This is why we did well during a period when European and North American countries experienced recession.

In fact, the reckless spending that we saw from the Labor government made the problem worse. Labor come in here and talk about how they are concerned about unemployment. Under the Labor government, the unemployment queues in this country increased. They increased by 200,000 people. We could fill the MCG twice with the number of people who were unemployed when that government left office compared to the number when they took office. As I said, this is a dangerous and deluded theory that the current opposition come up with.

These $900 cheques are a stark reminder of the folly of Keynesian spending. We know that Keynesian spending has been tried and tried and tried again. Every single time, it has failed. I can understand that for members of the Labor government, with their trade union backgrounds, having absolutely no experience in government, the Keynesian policy of spending looks good in theory, but in practice, as history shows, it does not work.

I think perhaps the best quote from history of why it did not work is the comments of the American treasurer Henry Morgenthau, FDR's treasurer, who was the architect of stimulus spending during the Great Depression in the USA. He said:

… we have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. … I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … And an enormous debt to boot!

That quote could equally sum up the experience that Australia has had from the Labor government.

But we now face a situation where we have inherited Labor's legacy of growing unemployment, so what should we do? Should we roll out another lot of $900 cheques and get our nation further into debt? I say no. To get this country moving, to get jobs created, we need to get rid of the carbon tax, we need to get rid of the mining tax, we need to reduce the red and green tape on small business, and we need to release the creativity and the ingenuity of our Australian people. But sadly, although we in government are trying to do that, we have been blocked in that, in everything the government is doing in the Senate. (Time expired)

Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Tax Bonus for Working Australians Repeal Bill 2013, the bill to repeal the Tax Bonus for Working Australians Act (No. 2) 2009, otherwise known as the tax bonus act. I note the comments prior to question time by the member for Forrest about her experience in this place for six years during the previous administration. I was watching, of course, from the sidelines. In fact, my wife runs a small business. We know very well how hard it is to pay back money once borrowed. I also note the comments of the member for Hughes and the experience in Europe. I would encourage those opposite to perhaps go onto YouTube and google Nigel Farage, the genius of mutual indebtedness. It is startling. I do not pretend to be able to emulate his fine performance in the European Parliament but it talks about the indebtedness of European countries and the notion that throwing more money at it, throwing borrowed money at more debt, is the solution. It simply isn't. This should be a simple and straightforward process that will ensure that the Commissioner of Taxation does not make any further tax bonus payments—that is, no further payments in what we now know as the infamous $900 stimulus cheque saga.

While the magnitude of the savings in this matter is not of enormous significance, it is symbolic of the waste and the recklessness and disregard for taxpayers' money that was a hallmark of the previous Labor government. This was a government whose legacy is cumulative projected deficits of $123 billion over the forward estimates and $667 billion of projected debt, a debt that is already costing $10 billion a year in interest payments to service. Every saving that we can find will help us to deliver on the plan that we put to the Australian people before 7 September, to build a stronger and more prosperous economy, and every saving is a worthwhile saving no matter the magnitude. We are keeping our commitments. We will stop the waste and restore faith in the political system. I note that the minister's explanatory notes state that, given that stimulus to the economy is no longer required, the government considers further payments are not warranted. By repealing this legislation, we are able to remove some government waste—waste with borrowed money.

As I touched on before, this is about restoring confidence of the Australian people in their government. It is about showing that government can and should rightly respect taxpayers' money, that we understand fundamentally that government does not create wealth, that government in and of itself has nothing. Government is the servant of the people. Governments spend money raised in taxation from hardworking individuals and businesses. It is a simple proposition in line with the commitments we made and what every Australian expects of the government. As is the case with households balancing the family budget, we make choices. Waste of any kind, particularly waste of money that is hard to come by, particularly for families and particularly for people on age pensions, is simply wrong. We understand how cost-of-living increases are diminishing the ability of families to get ahead and pensioners to enjoy a financially secure retirement. Waste was a hallmark of the previous government. It is abhorrent to see taxpayers' money wasted and it is right that every effort be made to rein in government spending where it is not required. Families understand this. Low-income families particularly understand this. It is what they expect of their government and it is what we are doing. This bill ensures that the Commissioner of Taxation does not make any further payments given that stimulus to the economy is no longer required. Families make financial choices to manage the family budget and so must government.

In recent years—and I know in the urban, rural and regional communities that make up my electorate of Lyons—the cost-of-living increases seen under the previous administration have been a significant burden on the family budget. Not only families but small businesses, from farmers to engineering businesses to country supermarkets to rural abattoirs, are affected. All Tasmanians who are obliged to move people or goods in or out of Tasmania have seen their costs rise due to increased costs on Bass Strait in part due to increased cost of fuel as a result of the carbon tax. The carbon tax insidiously impacts on the lives of individuals, families and businesses, and we are committed to seeing this legislation repealed. I urge those on the other side to see sense and support our efforts, not only to get the budget back under control but to reduce the cost burden on every Australian by supporting our repeal of the carbon tax in the Senate. So when we see families struggling to balance the budget, when we see small businesses passing on the costs under the carbon tax to customers, again increasing the cost of living, when we see farmers paying the carbon tax for costs of goods they produce but are unable to pass on down the supply chain, we undermine confidence and we stifle the entrepreneurial spirit that lies within every Australian.

The repeal of the Tax Bonus for Working Australians (No. 2) Act 2009 should be supported unanimously. It is symbolic of waste and it flies in the face of the choices that families and businesses make every day to cut their cloth to fit. In the same way as families are obliged to cut their cloth, so too should government. Things have changed. Australia is under new management. We have a plan: our commitment to the Australian people to build a strong and prosperous economy. Only the Labor Party stands in the way of us delivering $20 billion of savings currently before the parliament, including $5 billion of savings proposed by the previous government which they now oppose. Our commitments are about creating more jobs, with lower taxes, less red tape and policies that encourage everyone to have a go and to stop the waste. The Commission of Audit is underway, with the principal purpose of delivering better value for taxpayers' dollars. Supporting the repeal of this legislation will help deliver on all these commitments.

We opposed this package in opposition because we understood that it was poorly targeted and ineffective in supporting employment, particularly employment in the private sector. By way of example, in Northern Tasmania in a former life I was able to have a game of golf and played golf with the owner of an establishment that has poker machines in the venue. When the first round of the $900 cheques hit bank accounts, they advertised a free breakfast with $25 of gaming tickets, and the takings for that week increased by $75,000. This is where the money went. Coming from Tasmania, where we have an unemployment rate by far the worst in the country and well above the national average, I know just how ineffective it has been. Nothing is more important in Tasmania than jobs. We went to the election with our economic growth plan for our state and we are delivering on that plan. I know and believe that Tasmanians are ready to also soon elect a Hodgman government after so many years of financial mismanagement under Labor and more recently Labor and the Greens.

But most of all we opposed this package because it was unaffordable. History shows that legislation was passed.

Debate interrupted.