Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Sherry. Can I say that it will not throw me off the trace of the term ‘short term’, because basically what the minister is now telling the Australian people is that he cannot define what short term means. Nobody knows when this current period is going to end. Given that, to try to sell to the Australian people that this is a short-term measure, as opposed to a mid-term measure or a long-term measure, is in fact to mislead them. I would have thought that the Australian people in general terms would have thought that short term might be a couple of years or three years. Once we start ballooning out beyond three years, I would have thought that the government cannot say short term, but it has been saying temporary, short term et cetera. I note the government is unable to define it—and to a certain extent, given all the circumstances, I accept that. But what I do not accept is the political spin of the usage of the term ‘short term’. As we have always suspected with this package and the language associated with it, it is about spin rather than substance. I would have thought that if you were to level with the Australian people, to coin a phrase, you would say, ‘I am sorry, we can’t tell you whether this is going to be ‘short term’, medium term or long term because nobody knows when it is going to end.’

In an earlier answer Senator Sherry placed great emphasis on the advice of Treasury guiding government. As I understand it, this was the same Treasury that allegedly advised the government only 12 months ago that the economy was overheating, that the genie of inflation had escaped out of the bottle and that $20 billion had to be taken out of the economy to slow it down by way of extra tax revenues, as witnessed by the last budget, only to have the economy a few months later slowed down and cooling off. This was unpredicted, we were told—albeit the former Treasurer, Mr Costello, during the last election did predict the economic tsunami coming our way, which of course was scoffed at by Senator Sherry and his leader as a tactic designed to scare people about voting Liberal. So all I can say is that the reliance on this Treasury advice is not all that robust and the terminology is a matter of concern. But can I ask one question of the minister: will the money ultimately need to be repaid?