Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister promised the Australian people on the night before the last election: no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to the pension, no changes to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS. Will the Prime Minister repeat that promise now, and if not how can the Australian people trust anything this Prime Minister has to say?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As everyone in this chamber and everyone viewing here and around the country knows, tonight we have a budget. It is a very, very important budget, which obviously represents the values of this government and the necessity for this government to repair the debt and deficit disaster that we were left by members opposite—by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Shorten, and his colleagues.

I want to assure the Labor Party and all the people of Australia that we will fix the debt and deficit disaster that we were left by the Labor Party, and we will do it in ways which are faithful to the commitments we made pre-election. Let me remind members opposite that every day during the election campaign I expressed the objectives of this coalition should we be a government—we would stop the boats, we would scrap the carbon tax, we would build the roads of the 21st century and, above all else, we would bring the budget back under control. That is what this nation needs, and that is what we will deliver.

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How is the government keeping its commitment to get the budget back under control?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Member for Solomon for her question, and I can assure her and all members of this parliament that this is a government that will keep its commitments. The commitments we endlessly repeated before the election were to stop the boats, to scrap the carbon tax, to build the roads of the 21st century and to bring the budget back under control. These are the commitments we made, and these are the commitments we will honour. And isn't it so necessary that we get the budget back under control? What the Labor Party and members opposite did was to leave us a legacy of debt and deficit stretching as far as the eye can see. It was inter-generational theft. That is what they left us—$123 billion in cumulative budget deficit and $667 billion in projected debt. This is the debt and deficit disaster that members opposite left us. And members opposite knew they had a problem. That is why they went to the election promising $5 billion in spending cuts that they have walked away from. They have walked away from their own scant commitments to budget responsibility. The people of Australia did not elect us to make easy decisions; they elected us to make the tough decisions. They did not elect us to be cheapskate populists; they elected us to do what is necessary for our country, and we will.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, a point of order: there is far too much cheering from those behind the Prime Minister, and it is difficult to hear.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business knows that that is not a point of order. The Prime Minister has the call, and we will not have a repeat performance.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The people of Australia understand that this country's fiscal position is simply unsustainable. Every month, this country is borrowing $1 billion—that is one thousand millions of dollars. Every single month, we are borrowing that just to pay the interest on our debt. We are borrowing to pay the interest on our borrowing. And as every single Australian out there in the real world knows, that is simply unsustainable, so we will tackle the problem. We will do it in ways that are consistent with our pre-election commitments, and we will do it in ways that set up this great country for the long term.