Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, representing the Treasurer. I remind the Deputy Prime Minister that the bill for interest repayments on the government's debt is around $1 billion a month. What impact does this have on the economy and how does it compare with the legacy that previous governments inherited?

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I must thank the honourable member for his question. He draws attention to an appalling statistic that will overhang tonight's budget and indeed our national economy for a decade, and that is the legacy of Labor's debt. The first $1 billion that this government, or future governments, will collect in tax every month will have to be spent on paying the interest on Labor's debt. It is $1 billion that perhaps could have built a major new hospital in every capital city. It would only take six months of this interest payment and we could finish building the whole of the Pacific Highway to four lanes. Indeed, if you go back to 1974, the whole Snowy Mountains scheme cost only $1 billion to build, in 1974 numbers. Now, in today's numbers, Australian people have to pay $1 billion every month just to pay the interest on Labor's debt.

If the Labor Party had their way, it would continue to get worse and worse. There will be savings tonight that some may not like. If we did not have to pay $1 billion in interest every month, then those savings might not have to be made. If we wanted to spend more on things of significance, if we did not have to pay that $1 billion every month on interest then there would be opportunities for us to do so much more. Labor's legacy, from six years in government, is a legacy of debt. They inherited record surpluses and turned them into record deficits, and they did it in their very first year. They took savings in the bank and turned surpluses into deficit. Labor delivered $191 billion worth of deficits in just their six years, and there would be $123 billion more in deficits in store if they were still in government.

Our task in government is to start restoring the national economy so that we can get rid of some of that debt, so that we can spend money on the things that Australians want rather than paying the debts of the disgraceful administration that was cast out of office at the last election. Unless we take action tonight, the gross debt will rise to $667 billion. That is a debt, for every Australian, of almost $25,000 per person. What a legacy Labor has left behind! Now it is our turn to have to correct, once again, the legacy of Labor's debt and deficit and to get our country moving forward once again.