Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

You can only imagine, can’t you, that the greatest day of the now Prime Minister’s prime ministership must have been the night that he was elected. Not really because he was elected—that would have been a great thing—but because he became the custodian of the almost $22 billion surplus that the coalition government had amassed during its time in office. You can imagine a grubby little Labor Prime Minister who finally had his hands on some money. He must have been like a little child let loose in a lolly shop. Just imagine the new Labor Prime Minister salivating over all the various ways he could spend the $22 billion surplus amassed for the Australian people. He has not disappointed us because from the moment that Mr Rudd was elected he started to make mistakes. Why did he do that? Because Labor have only ever had a political strategy that would get them elected, but they have never had an economic strategy. And that is to the detriment of the Australian people. The sad reality for mums and dads is that because Labor have only ever had a political strategy they are now paying the price for Labor’s reckless spending. Despite the protestations from those on the other side there is no good news in sight. Australians will continue to pay more under Labor.

What must be so disappointing for the mums and dads in Australia is that they are paying more under the leadership of a Labor Prime Minister who told them prior to the 2007 election that he was an economic conservative. He was an economic conservative who had a plan for Australia’s future, and that plan involved budget surpluses. The evidence that we now have, and I will turn to that, shows that the now Prime Minister was little more than just being loose with the truth when he told the Australian people that he was an economic conservative. It begs the question though, doesn’t it? Why would a Labor Prime Minister tell the people of Australia prior to a federal election that he was an economic conservative? The only answer to that question can be: because he wanted the Australian people to believe that he had the same fiscal and economic acuity as his Liberal predecessor, John Howard. Mr Howard was an economic conservative. A $22 billion surplus speaks to that.

Mr Rudd’s claim to be an economic conservative was all just spin, and the Australian people have now been delivered the substance. It cannot be denied: Labor’s pre-election commitment to fiscal conservatism, just like so many of Labor’s other pre-election commitments, was a farce. It was a sham, it was a charade and it was designed to pacify and con the voters into believing that Mr Rudd would be economically and fiscally responsible, just like Mr Howard. If you need any evidence of the farce, the sham that Mr Rudd continues to perpetuate, you only have to look at the fact that this government is following a policy of creating and constructing massive deficits well into the future. In very basic terms, what does this mean for mums and dads in Australia? Unfortunately it is a very simple answer. Mums and dads will continue to pay more for Labor’s reckless spending, and they will pay more through higher taxes and higher interest rates.

That cannot be denied because the facts over the last few days are now being put on the record. Rudd Labor this week have been given every opportunity to categorically rule out any new taxes including taxing mum and dad’s family home. But they refuse to do so. Why? Because they have returned to form. What we have with the economically conservative Rudd Labor government is an old-style, high-taxing, high-spending Labor government. Did the now Prime Minister, who is masquerading as an economic conservative, tell this to the Australian people prior to the 2007 election? Absolutely not. Did he tell the Australian people that they would have to bring in new taxes to pay off their massive spending spree? Absolutely not.

We know that Labor are considering more taxes. In question time yesterday Senator Sherry was given the opportunity and he failed to deny that both the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance and Deregulation agree that Australia should have an inheritance tax and that a deemed capital gains tax on death is yet another option being considered by Rudd Labor. He also failed to rule out that Australians will be slugged with a special tax surcharge on so-called high-income earners.

Then we have the comments from Mr Tanner, which should be read out so the Australian public know exactly what they have now got in voting for Labor. What did Mr Tanner say? He said this:

“We should have an inheritance tax or some tax of that nature. Deemed capital gains tax on death is another option in that regard.”

If they cannot get you while you are living, they will get you once you are dead. The good old Labor mantra of ‘spend, spend, spend and then tax, tax, tax’ is well and truly alive. What do we have with the Henry review? Quite frankly, nothing more than a vehicle to find more revenue to pay for Rudd Labor’s reckless spending. As the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, so eloquently said:

The biggest brake on Australia’s recovery from this economic downturn is the mountain of debt that the Prime Minister has built for us. He’s talked about this decade being a decade of building. The only thing he’s built so far is a record level of government debt heading to $315 billion and likely to be more …

Labor continue to rewrite history. How soon they forget, or perhaps it is just a repressed memory, that it was the former Howard government, the former coalition government, that bequeathed Rudd Labor no debt, money in the bank and the best regulatory system in the world. Labor can continue to try and rewrite history but the facts remain. Let us look at a little bit of history. On Tuesday, 8 May 2007 the Treasurer of Australia, the Hon. Peter Costello, in delivering the budget address, said the following:

Australia is different to the way it was 10 years ago.

Our economy is about 1½ times larger than it was back in 1996.

We have another 2 million Australians who have found jobs since then. And average wages have increased 20 per cent in real terms.

          …            …            …

Ten years ago the Australian Government owed a net debt of $96 billion. The Government was paying an interest bill of $8.5 billion a year. Today we are debt free in net terms. And our net interest payments are zero. This is saving taxpayers $8.5 billion a year.

Back in 1996 the budget was in deficit. We were living beyond our means. Today we are living within our means. For the 10th time, I am outlining a Budget that will be in surplus.

How times have changed. Shame on the other side for standing in this chamber and trying to tell the coalition that we did not know how to manage the economy. Those are the facts. They speak for themselves. No matter how those opposite try to rewrite history the Australian people are not stupid and they know that through the economic mismanagement of those opposite they are now paying for their reckless spending. What Peter Costello said back then was what a true fiscal conservative sounds like, someone who understands that chronic national debt will have a crippling effect on the economy for generations to come.

It took the coalition government 10 years to pay back $96 billion of Labor debt and we did it during a boom cycle. How long will it take the next coalition government to clean up the filthy mess that Rudd Labor has created to the tune of $315 billion of debt to date? What is worse is that when in good faith the Australian people look to Rudd Labor for leadership and look to Rudd Labor for a way out of this black hole, this is what they see: nothing but darkness. Three hundred and fifteen billion dollars in debt is no laughing matter and Australians know that one day they will have to pay this money back. Increasing debt and a huge deficit—that is now Australia’s reality. Australians face a $58 billion deficit this year, $315 billion worth of gross debt for our children, seven years of budget deficits and a peak gross interest bill of around $17 billion. Without a doubt, actions speak louder than words. In the very short time that those opposite have been in power, they have presided over not only a swift but a disastrous U-turn by the Australian economy. The strong, robust Australian economy that they inherited from the coalition government has been destroyed. It is nothing but a memory. How things have changed for the worst since 2007.

But what is worse for the Australian people is that the $315 billion debt may even be a conservative figure. Perhaps that is what Mr Rudd actually meant when he called himself a ‘fiscal conservative’! So Australians are right to be asking Mr Rudd, ‘What is Rudd Labor going to do to get us out of debt?’ The bad news for Australians is that Rudd Labor does not have a plan. True economic conservatives leave government with a legacy that they can be proud of. The former coalition government left a legacy that it could be proud of. It was a record of no debt—and therefore no interest repayments—an almost $20 billion surplus and historically low unemployment. Australia, under Rudd Labor, is now a nation saddled with increasing debt. A nation saddled with a huge deficit—that is the Rudd Labor record. Rudd Labor has no strategy other than a political strategy. There is no long-term sustainable strategy or sound economic policy to rebuild this country. Australian families are paying the price for Labor’s reckless spending and, as always, it is the coalition who will yet again clean up the filthy mess.