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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Today is National Sorry Day. Before the election, the Prime Minister promised that he would be the Prime Minister for Indigenous affairs. His cuts of more than $500 million from Indigenous programs in the budget make this promise a complete joke. Why should Indigenous Australians suffer because of the Prime Minister's broken promises?

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

It is National Sorry Day and it is a perfectly appropriate question for the Leader of the Opposition to kick off question time with today. I am very pleased to be able to reassure the Leader of the Opposition that while we are making some savings in this area, as we are making savings across the board, we believe that by collapsing some 100 separate programs into five broad programs we can achieve efficiencies in service delivery that will mean, with somewhat less money, that we will achieve better outcomes. This is our objective: to achieve better outcomes for the Indigenous people of our country. What we are absolutely committed to doing is to ensuring that children go to school, that adults go to work and that people are safe in their own homes. These changes were thoroughly discussed with the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council. As anyone who had read Warren Mundine's speech given last weekend would know, the council is satisfied that the government are heading in the right direction.

Louise Markus (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister explain to the House why it is necessary to address Labor's legacy of debt and deficit?

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

Australia does have a fundamentally strong economy, but under the former Labor government the budget was fundamentally weak. So we had a fundamentally strong economy but a fundamentally weak budget. What this government is doing is fixing the budget to strengthen our economy—and didn't it need fixing. The former government, the Labor Party, inherited a $20 billion surplus and $50 billion in the bank, and they gave the people of Australia the six biggest deficits in our history. They gave us debt and deficit stretching out as far as the eye can see—$123 billion in cumulative projected deficits and $667 billion in projected gross debt. Thanks to the policies pursued by members opposite, this country is borrowing a billion dollars every single month just to pay interest on the borrowings. Under the policies of members opposite, within a decade that mean $3 billion would have to be borrowed every single month—enough to fund the Western Sydney infrastructure package, which this government are getting on with.

You cannot keep putting the mortgage on the credit card, which is what members opposite have done. This government did not create the problem, but we are shouldering responsibility for fixing it. Under us, instead of a $30 billion deficit in 2017-18, the deficit will come in at under $3 billion and debt will be $300 billion less under the policies that we announced in the budget. This is what the government was elected to do. We were elected to take the tough decisions necessary to get this country back on track and that is exactly what we are doing. Every day before the election, we made it crystal clear what we were doing: we would stop the boats, we would scrap the carbon tax and we would build the road to the 21st century and we would get the budget back under control, and that is precisely what this government are doing.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister inform the House how many children whose families currently receive family tax benefit part B will lose the payment and suffer because of his cruel budget cuts?

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

We were absolutely crystal clear on budget night that we were changing the conditions for the receipt of family tax benefit part B, that we were reducing the primary income earner's income from $150,000 to $100,000 because we do want to bear down on so-called middle-class welfare—

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

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The answer to this question is a number. The Prime Minister can let the parliament know what that number is or concede that he does not know.

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

The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. He knows very well that he cannot dictate the way in which the answer is given but merely say that it must be relevant. The Prime Minister will continue his answer being relevant to the question.

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

We support choice. We absolutely support choice. But there is a limit to how much taxpayer support we can give once the youngest child is at school. There is a limit to that. We were absolutely up-front in the budget about this. We must live within our means. Living within our means means that handouts with borrowed money cannot continue in the way members opposite want.

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

I call the honourable member for Bass.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to table a document.

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

The member for Bass does have the call.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to table a document.

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

You had to be a bit quicker up. I will be making a statement at the end of question time about the tabling of documents by private members. But, in the meantime, because I have not yet made it, I will ask the member for Bass to take his seat for a moment, and you can seek leave at this stage.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I seek leave to table estimates question on notice No. 233 that shows more than one million children are going to lose money as a result of your budget.

Leave not granted.

Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline the importance of reducing debt and getting the budget back on track?

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

I thank the honourable member for Bass for his question. I recognise that he, like most other Australians, knows that we have to do something about the legacy of $667 billion of debt that would have been in place had we not taken the decisions that we took on budget night. It is about getting the budget back on track. That was one of our key election promises: to fix the budget, to fix the mess that Labor left. At the moment we are paying a billion dollars a month—one billion dollars every month in interest on the debt that Labor has left. This would be $2.8 billion a month in 10 years time if nothing is done. That is $2.8 billion a month in 10 years time if nothing is done about the state of the budget. Under the legacy of the previous government, each Australian's share of the interest would be $9,400 over the next 10 years. In four years time alone, if nothing is done, every single Australian will be paying the equivalent of $740 in interest alone on Labor's debt—$740 each.

To put that in perspective, as the IMF identified, we were left with a legacy of the third fastest growth in net debt of the surveyed countries by the IMF. What does that mean? That means that, ultimately, as interest rates rise, the punitive measures a future government would need to take to fix the budget would be more dramatic. We need to take action now. We must take action now, because the pain associated with taking action in the future would be far greater if we went down the path that the Labor Party is advocating—that is, do nothing. When you do nothing you become a victim of circumstances. When you take action you have at least a chance to control your destiny. The coalition is firmly of the view that we must take action now to repair the budget and to reduce the level of debt burden that is being passed on to future generations of Australians.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. There are 8,429 families currently receiving family tax benefit B in the seat of Capricornia. How many families with children over the age of six in Capricornia will have their payments cut as a result of this budget? Why should these families suffer because of the member for Capricornia's failure to stand up against the Prime Minister's cuts?

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

I absolutely accept that if you go through the budget figures, if you go through the budget announcements, you can find some people who will be impacted by budget decisions. I absolutely accept that.

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

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

Order! The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The deputy leader has asked her question. She seriously wants an answer. I would ask for silence so it can be heard.

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

Shock! Horror! The Deputy Leader of the Opposition has discovered that some people will be impacted by budget decisions. Of course some people will be impacted by budget decisions. We could not go on as a nation giving people borrowed money that our nation cannot afford and that the government cannot sustain. Because of the pseudogenerosity of members opposite, this country was in an absolutely unsustainable situation—

Ms Macklin interjecting—

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

The member for Jagajaga is warned!

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

borrowing a billion every single month just to pay interest on the borrowings. That situation was simply unsustainable. The thing about the budget is that it is a contribute-and-build budget. High-income earners will pay the deficit levy. Members of parliament will face a pay freeze. Motorists will pay the fuel excise indexation. Everyone is making a contribution so that our country will be better off in the long run, and that is what we were elected to do: to get the budget back under control so that our country will be better and stronger in the long run. If the Deputy Leader of the Opposition is so concerned about the welfare of the people of Capricornia, then scrap the carbon tax. That will save every household in Capricornia $550 a year.