Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Finance and Debt Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the statement.

We have asked, and rightly asked, for the tabling of the document that shows to the Australian people the revenue capacity of our nation and that was delivered to the government before Christmas. I thank the senator for offering us the MYEFO documents, which we already have, and the budget papers, which we have spent an inordinate amount of time going over in estimates, but this is yet another stunt. What we want, what is required, what is only right to be asked for, is the tabling of the Henry tax review. The document is there. They have it. We need it. And they cannot carry any plausibility whatsoever in arguments about costings or in arguments about finding over $3.2 billion when they hold back the premier document for the revenue structure of this nation into the future.

What is it about the Henry tax review that they are hiding from the public? What is it about this document that has now gone into that nebulous position of ‘we’ll release it at some time in the future’? Is this another part of the Labor Party’s Intergenerational report, so we will see it around 2050? We need that document, and until the Labor Party can table that document they do not hold any credibility whatsoever in being able to define the revenue structure of this nation and, by reason of that, to give us a position to start determining the costs.

This is all part of the Labor Party’s trajectory, the insanity, as they walk towards the largest debt—well, they are at the largest debt this nation has ever had. By reason of that debt, they are putting pressure for the future on all sections of expenditure. They have to acknowledge that as they walk forward past $120 billion, and on and on and on it goes. We hear Mr Swan talking about $315 billion peak debt. Now we hear a number of $256 billion peak debt. But they will not provide the document or say how we are going to finance it. Unless we understand where the money comes from and how we are going to finance it, then the debt is out of control. But I think that is the issue: the debt is out of control.

This government has got to be decisive. They lack decisiveness. They lack clarity. They lack transparency. And now they are sitting on the Henry tax review. Why? Is it unsavoury? What is in it? How can they come into this parliament in an election year and sit on the main document we have to deal with the major economic problem that this government has brought about, which is the debt of this nation. We have in excess of $1.4 trillion in expenses in the next four years.