Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes. So presumably, the states are all in agreement with the bona fides of this package, but the federal Labor Party is not, which really does beggar belief. For a party that has learned absolutely nothing in the last 11 years and that left this country with a debt of $96 billion on the credit card, with a budget deficit in its last year of $10 billion, to come in here and lecture this government about weak financial discipline is quite utterly bizarre.

There will not be one person listening to this debate who believes a single word of it. You know what they do not believe? They do not believe you have changed. That is the first thing they do not believe. The problem the members of the Australian Labor Party have is that your new leader has committed himself to the principles of weak financial management by his enthusiastic embrace of the way his state colleagues are managing their economies. On the public record, he has talked about the way he supports their management of their states. This is the man who Senator Fierravanti-Wells said has been going around Australia spending money like a drunken sailor.

I thought it might be of interest to the chamber—I thought it would be worth while—to go through some of the facts and figures about how good these states, which Mr Rudd is so spectacularly supportive of, are, and why everyone listening to this debate today would be deeply concerned about Mr Rudd setting the benchmark because he has tied himself to those state governments in his public commentary about the way they are operating. I will just go through some material. Between 2000-01 and 2004-05 state Labor governments have consistently blown their forecast spending. Across all the states and territories during this period, extra recurrent spending has exceeded forecasts by more than 13 per cent. In New South Wales, that spending exceeded the forecast by 14.8 per cent. In Victoria, it exceeded it by 13.3 per cent; in Queensland, by a massive 19 per cent; in Western Australia, by 12.6 per cent; in South Australia, by 12 per cent; in Tasmania, by an almost unbelievable 31.6 per cent; in the Northern Territory, by 15.7 per cent; and in the ACT, by 21.4 per cent. So, in every state and territory around Australia, the Australian Labor Party has shown its economic credentials when it comes to managing spending. This is the same group of people who are supported by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Rudd, who he says are good financial managers and who he has publicly supported as examples of the way the financial management of this country should be run.

To make it worse, state and territory governments have blown their own forecasts over five years by more than 13 per cent, the equivalent of $66 billion. So, if you want an indication of what Mr Rudd’s benchmark is, you need look no further than the state and territory governments, because they are the ones that he is holding up as the shining lights of financial management in this country. For no better example of weak financial discipline, look at those figures.

In the short time left to me, I actually want to have a chat about the Audit Office—