Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer confirm that in the last week he has introduced a bill with cuts to families, pensioners, carers and new mums; held child care and the National Disability Insurance Scheme to ransom; and threatened to increase taxes on all Australians or make further cuts—all while persisting with his $50 billion worth of big business tax cuts. Doesn't this show the Treasurer is incompetent and out of touch?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I refer the member again to the speech given by the Reserve Bank governor last Thursday night when he made it very clear that what we need in this country is a competitive business tax system and ensure that we have fiscal consolidation. We need to do these things together, not instead of. They need to be done together, and that is what was in the budget we handed down in May, and these are the measures that we have brought into this House. These were the proposals that were indeed recommended by the member for Lilley. In that same speech I referred to before, he also said:

Government spending that seemed affordable during the period of largesse prior to the global crisis may not be affordable over the longer term.

So, those on this side of the House understand: when spending raises to a particular level which cannot be sustained into the future, then you need to get your spending under control. On this side of the House, we understand that the real commitments that we want to make to ensure that there is affordable child care for Australian families and that the National Disability Insurance Scheme is fully funded, not left by an empty promise by those opposite.

We make no apologies for doing the hard work that is necessary to ensure that these things deliver these important impacts for Australian families, that makes these things affordable and gives them the reliance for the future are done. Those opposite think you can just keep running up the bill without ever having to pay for it. They think you can just keep putting the bill on your children, on the credit card and just let it run off forever.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Those mock opposite every time I raise the issue that they want to spend more money on welfare and send the bill to their kids. If you want to raise spending on welfare and keep it at higher levels, at least have the courage to insist that the generation that you say wants that higher welfare also pays for it and don't send the bill to the children of the future on their credit cards. What we should be doing is giving the next generation a platform to spring off, not a debt burden that hangs around their neck, because those opposite cannot get over their addiction to spending. What that means is: they are addicted to higher taxes, but even then their taxes can never keep up with their appetite for spending. That is why at the last election they said to the Australian people: 'We want to tax you more. We want to spend more. We want a bigger debt and we want a bigger deficit.' It is no surprise that the Australian people rejected this Leader of the Opposition and rejected that shadow Treasurer at the last election.