Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Coonan: $7 billion. That is $7 billion that will now not be available to the Australian taxpayer. Many people in the community fall into the fallacy of thinking that—and I heard Senator Colbeck touch on this—if they are getting money from the government it does not cost anybody anything; the government have this big bucket of money that they can give away to the ordinary consumer in Australian society and it does not cost anything. In fact, Australian taxpayers need to know that it is their money that this government is borrowing and it is their money that will have to pay off the debt. Governments do not have money; they only have taxpayers’ money.

Parts of this package, such as some of the infrastructure investments, are things that should be done anyway. They are things that this government has promised that it will try and do in the future. Money that is spent on infrastructure for long-term investment has generally proven to be wise investment. But throwing cash at people? I have a daughter, a grand-daughter and her partner who will be recipients of this cash. They probably think it will be very handy at the time, because they are on reasonably low incomes, until such time as we say, ‘Of course, this has to be paid back, you know.’

When we stop and think what this government is doing to the Australian people, we need to think carefully about what the money is being spent on. What are we spending this money on? Pink Batts? Surely a sure supply of water to South Australia through some infrastructure spending is far more important than insulation of homes. I lived in a home without insulation for the first 60 years of my life, and we survived—it had no air conditioning, either! But to consider putting insulation into every home that does not have it ahead of the water needs of South Australia and those downstream of the River Murray I think shows an appalling sense of priority. I hope that some reconsideration will be given to this aspect of the package, should it pass this chamber.

Just for the record, I think we should highlight the fact that, when the coalition left government, Labor inherited a world-class regulatory system with a strong banking and financial sector. The regulations that were put in place by Peter Costello and the Howard government insulated this country against the worst excesses that have affected other countries around the world. Senator O’Brien, you have been to the US. You know what it is like in the United States, and that the lack of a good, strong regulatory system may have been the catalyst—