Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

The facts always speak louder than the spin of Mr Rudd and his minions like Senator Sterle. Let me give you some facts. After 13 years of Labor government in the eighties and nineties, the coalition government took office. We found that the Australian public had been lied to about the state of the books. There was actually a $96 billion deficit run up by 13 years of Labor governments, most of which was kept secret from the Australian public. Over the next 10 very difficult years, the Howard government—a government in which, as Senator Sterle rightly said, I was a minister; and I am very proud of having been a minister in that government, which is something that Senator Sterle will never be able to be proud of having been—paid back the $96 billion. But, lo and behold, within two short years of the Labor Party again winning office, we have already a net government debt of $153 billion. Let us compare this to the state of the books when the coalition left office—not only did we have no net government debt but we actually had almost $45 billion in credit. We had $45 billion put aside for a rainy day. So it went from a $45 billion surplus to $153 billion of net government debt by 2013.

When we left office the coalition had a budget surplus of some $19.7 billion. I want to emphasise that. After two years of Mr Rudd and Labor mismanagement we now have a $57.7 billion deficit. We have gone from $20 billion plus to almost $60 billion minus. It just shows that you cannot trust Labor with money. I can understand why. I do not want to be personal about this but if you spend your life as a union organiser, bullying your fellow unionists, what chance have you got of running a business or a government? Absolutely none, and that shows in the fact that they cannot manage their money.

Under the coalition government do you know what we paid in annual interest on government debt at the end of that period? Not a cent in interest on government debt. Do you know what we are paying today? We pay $8.2 billion annual interest on government debt that could be better used to build hospitals, roads and look after Indigenous people’s welfare. It is $8.2 billion that could have gone to something special instead of being thrown away to mainly foreign money lenders.

Under the coalition government, when we left office, the net government debt per Australian person was zero. Do you what it is today? Every one of us in this chamber, everyone in the gallery and everyone who might be listening have a debt, racked up by Mr Rudd and his economic illiterates on the other side, of $6,375 per person. We are all in debt as a result of the incompetence and mismanagement of the Labor Party.

That is in a simple two-year period. Heaven knows what it is going to be by the time the election comes around in one year’s time. I certainly hope by that time that the Australian public will realise that their finances, their money, their economy has been mismanaged by Mr Rudd and, as I say, his economic illiterates on the other side.