Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The $70 billion infrastructure fund that is coming. We have discovered also that we are not intending to repay it; we are just going to borrow more money to pay for the interest. We also know that we are a third of the way to where even Dr Henry says we should not be, which is a trillion dollars in debt. This is pretty startling stuff. We could have got through this had we had a longer inquiry. While sometimes we disagree, I concur with Senator Fielding that these are the sorts of details the Australian people want to know. It is absolutely crucial and fundamental in the way people vote around here. I and my colleagues will at times give people the benefit of the doubt and support you on issues if we think that you are being fair dinkum with us, but I do not think you are this time. I suspected it had hairs all over it at the start. The more we get into it, the hairier it gets—hairy and very dangerous, actually.

I am going to come back later on—I will give someone else a chance; I apologise, Senator Siewert—to really go through the efficacy of the spend. But there is one thing the Australian people can gather from this afternoon: that we are on a very treacherous path to a substantial amount of debt and there is absolutely no comprehension whatsoever of how we are ever going to repay it.