Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Having listened to the debate and the contribution from those on the government benches, I, frankly, am appalled. I have listened to Senator Lundy talk about what she knows and about the investments that this government is making. But there is a simple question that she was not prepared to talk about, and that is: when will this government repay the onerous debt burden it is foisting upon the Australian people for decades to come? That is the single question. It is right for the Australian people to be alarmed about the direction in which we are going.

I listened to Senator Arbib verbal Senator Fifield for his outstanding contribution, by selectively quoting some references from Sky News. What Senator Arbib did not actually reflect on was that Senator Fifield said that you do need to respond quickly and taking a quick decision on pensions would be one of the most direct things you could do to help stimulate the economy. That was rejected by this government, when people were in need and they were delayed in getting it. So do not come in here and say that you are the party of compassion and you are investing in the future, because you neglected the needs of the people whilst your budget situation was deteriorating. You refused to confront it, and you refuse to confront the issue of how you are going to pay this back. To paraphrase a song: you are on a magical mystery tour. You do not know where you are headed and you do not know how you are going to fix the problems that you are creating. It reminded me of a phrase that was repeated to me often as a child: ‘People seem to know the price of everything and the value of nothing.’ Well, let me tell you, the Australian people know the price of this government. It is $188 billion and it could go much higher. But we also know the value of this government, because that is absolutely zero. This government is so reckless and irresponsible in its spending that it is going to shackle every man, woman and child in this country with thousands upon thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of debt. It is going to shackle this nation with an interest bill, at current interest rates, which we heard today is going to exceed $7½ billion.

We also know, as does anyone who has a basic understanding of economics and finance, that the only way governments can repay debt is to inflate the economy and create inflation, which causes interest rates to go up, which will make a complete mockery of their claim of $7 billion worth of annual interest payments. It will probably be $15 billion or $20 billion a year that the Australian people will have to toil to repay so that ‘Kevonomics’ can have a go at working. It is an absolute farce and the government should be ashamed. I am sorry, Mr Acting Deputy President, that you have had to listen to such nonsense from the other side of the chamber. The other way, of course, that a government can repay debt is to increase the taxation requirements on the people who are working so hard to support their families, build businesses and invest in assets. The government are going to either inflate their way out of debt or tax their way out of debt, but we do not know when. They are going to keep putting the magic pudding in front of them and saying, ‘Let’s hope the public don’t wake up to this.’ But they are waking up. They are waking up to the reckless, irresponsible image and conduct of this government.

In extending the olive branch briefly to the government, I will say that there is an international financial crisis and it is absolutely apparent that the international financial crisis is caused by too much debt. Anyone who understands finance understands that. Yet, the cure for too much debt is not to go into more debt. Any family understands that, any individual understands that and any business understands that. I wonder how many in the Labor Party run their households at home by incurring more debt when they are already struggling to meet their repayments. I bet nary a one. But somehow it is okay for the country to go down this path. Senator Joyce mentioned that it was like a horror movie. I think it is bit more like the Wizard of Oz. We have the frightened Swan, who was too afraid to mention the budget deficit of $58 billion in his budget speech. We have the Prime Minister who thinks somehow he is just going to click his red heels together and, in five years time, everything will be fixed up and he will be back in Kansas. I suspect this Prime Minister will be lounging around his $5 million beach house in Queensland, such is his compassion for the Australian people.

We have got a bunch of people pursuing a brain, thinking, ‘We can redefine economics, we can spend our way out of trouble and spend our way into prosperity.’ It does not work like that. Every dollar borrowed today is going to have to be repaid threefold, and the Australian people are going to have to wear the burden of this. There is a crisis in this country. There is a crisis of confidence in this government, there is a crisis of currency in this government. The Australian people are waking up to the fact that this is a government without a path. It does not have an agenda save to keep things plodding along as quickly as possible so that they can win their way back into government again. The Australian people cannot afford it. We cannot afford a debt burden which is going to lie on our chest as we struggle to breathe as a nation. We cannot afford it. We need to break away from this cycle of irresponsible and reckless spending. Yet the government does not quite see it like that. It thinks somehow it is doing us a favour, doing the Australian people a favour by penalising and placing this debt burden on our children. What we can see is that it has put the package together, put a yolk on the children, the very future of our country, and asks them to toil and toil to pay for Kevin Rudd’s indulgence. It is a wrong course of action. It is a course of action that is going to do untold damage to our economy. It is a course of action that is going to do untold damage to our economy. It is a course of action that is advocated only by those who are prepared to be responsible.