Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Social Services. Will the minister advise the House why it is important to achieve savings in the Social Services portfolio to ensure a sustainable safety net for current and future Australians who need our support?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Herbert for his question. We know on this side of the House that you have to have savings to pay for the things that you want to do; and, if you want to fix the budget, you have to have savings to fix the budget—otherwise, you are just a budget smuggler! You are just a budget smuggler. That is what the Leader of the Opposition does.

In this budget, there are $7 billion worth of savings in the Social Services portfolio, and those savings are designed to ensure that we can invest in programs to get young Australians and families into jobs. That is what we are doing to support them to make the choice to be in work, and we are doing it with these savings to reduce the deficit—the deficit we inherited from those opposite, as they ran up the bills year upon year and years on top of that. We are also doing this to accommodate the investments and the expenditure which we know we will have to make to ensure a secure safety net in the future.

We have talked about the need to fund the Jobs for Families package but we also have to fund the NDIS. The NDIS is something that is supported by both sides of the House, right across the chamber and over both chambers, but there are some realities that we have to deal with. The NDIS will grow one full percentage point of GDP in terms of cost over the next five years. When it comes to full effect in five years from now, it is going to cost the Commonwealth some $11.7 billion—$5.4 billion of which is unfunded. It is unfunded by the levy. If those opposite think they can make big commitments without making the savings they need to absorb these important investments then they are not up to the job.

I know that the shadow minister, the member for Jagajaga, has said that you have got to pay for these things somehow. Well, I have been thinking: where is this 'somehow place' where you can magically fund all of your commitments? I thought it might be 'Somewhere over the rainbow way up high. There's a land that I've heard of once in a lullaby' That is what they think. They are living in a fantasy land when it comes to how you pay for your budget promises. We have got the Wizzard of Oz over here—all smoke and mirrors. It is time for those opposite to come back to reality, whether it is the flying monkeys up the back, the cowardly lion—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

or Dorothy herself over here. It is time for her to stand up and tap her shoes together, come back to reality and say: 'There's no place like home. There's no place like home.'

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

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.