Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Ian Campbell for his question and acknowledge that this is Senator Ian Campbell’s last week of sitting in the Senate. I congratulate him on his enormous contribution to both this parliament and the government of this country.

Last night’s budget is a testament to what can be achieved when you run a strong economy with continuous growth, rising real incomes, low inflation and unemployment at generational lows. It shows what can be done when you get the budget into surplus and you eliminate debt. When the Labor Party last brought down a budget, in 1995, they spent more on interest payments on the big debt they racked up than they spent on education—a travesty. We are running surpluses of one per cent of GDP, we have eliminated Labor’s debt, we have established the Future Fund and we are saving the $8½ billion every year that Labor used to spend on interest payments. It is that platform that allows us to make substantial investments in the future. It has allowed us to create the Higher Education Endowment Fund, it has allowed us to cut personal income tax and it has allowed us to increase childcare benefits by 10 per cent and to cash out the childcare tax rebate. It has allowed us to invest $22 billion, under AusLink 2, for transport. These initiatives are made possible by the economic management of the past and they lay the foundations for future economic strength. Childcare assistance and income tax cuts are aimed squarely at boosting workforce participation. Our education investment helps to address skill shortages and to boost long-term productivity. Our infrastructure investment, through AusLink, will boost the economy’s capacity to deliver future growth. None of that was possible 10 years ago.

Ten years ago, no-one dared to imagine that Australia could achieve the prosperity we now enjoy. No-one thought that we could get unemployment to 4½ per cent, that we could increase real disposable incomes by 25 per cent, or that we could increase real household wealth by 140 per cent. No-one believed we could eliminate government debt and fund our superannuation liabilities. These things are possible because of the work we have done over the last 10 years in government. All the difficult reforms that we have achieved have been despite constant opposition from the Labor Party. I think that, in another decade, Australians will look back and see this budget as a truly historic occasion—when the Howard government had the vision to establish the Higher Education Endowment Fund and to invest in education, workforce participation and transport infrastructure.

If this budget has been a symbol of the Howard government’s 11 years in office, Labor’s response has been equally symbolic of its now decade-long policy paralysis. Labor has criticised this budget, but it is going to support every single measure in the budget. It is our view that, under Labor’s policies, last night’s budget would never have been possible. When Labor was in government, it delivered recessions, 17 per cent interest rates and double-digit unemployment. In 2007, its policies on industrial relations and climate change do illustrate and confirm that Labor remains a serious threat to the future of the Australian economy. Under a Labor government, there would not be budgets like last night’s. Labor has no plans to keep the economy strong, to keep inflation under control, to keep unemployment low and to secure our future.