Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research) Share this | Hansard source

The Tax Laws Amendment (Temporary Flood and Cyclone Reconstruction Levy) Bill 2011 and the Income Tax Rates Amendment (Temporary Flood and Cyclone Reconstruction Levy) Bill 2011 are ostensibly about introducing a flood levy, but they are actually about compulsive behaviour. I recall learning, when I was growing up, that Walt Disney was driven to wash his hands 30 times every hour. Other people have a strange compulsion to collect old newspapers and some people collect empty beer cans, but this government tops them all: they think they have to impose a new tax every week. They are fiscally compulsive. No matter the issue—alcopops, carbon, minerals or now the floods—Labor breaks into a cold sweat and yells and gibbers, ‘Tax it, tax it, tax it, tax it.’ That is what this government does.

Everyone in this parliament knows that Labor are imposing yet another tax because they cannot spend taxpayers’ money wisely. That is the crux of this tax. It is a double whammy; it is worse than you might think. The federal Labor government have to impose a levy because the Queensland state Labor government is totally incompetent. I know Senator Xenophon has said a lot about insurance and the failure of the state government to take out insurance. That is true and I accept that it has cost Queensland, and now the nation, billions of dollars. But it is far worse: the cumulative debt forecasted in Queensland state Labor’s own budget papers will be $83½ billion in 2014-15.

I remember Mr Beazley’s $96 billion black hole in 1996 and how outraged the coalition and the community were about that. That was $96 billion with an Australian population of roughly 18 million. The debt for each Australian was roughly $4,000 per head. In 1996 the coalition was rightly outraged and the community turfed out the Keating government. In Queensland, though, it is far, far worse. We have $83½ billion in debt projected for 2014-15. What is Queensland’s population? It is about 4½ million people. The debt for each man, woman and child in Queensland will be nearly $19,000 in 2014-15. That is absolutely outrageous. The irony of this situation is that the federal government, up to its eyeballs in debt, is bailing out a state government drowning in debt—how appropriate for a flood levy.

We know Queensland is a shambles, but let us not let the federal government off the hook. Labor is borrowing $81 million a week in order to pay the interest on its net debt of $89½ billion and it is borrowing around $700 million each and every week—about $100 million a day—to meet its net interest payments, which will increase to $102 million a week in 2011-12. As Joe Hockey has pointed out:

It is also worth noting that for 2010/11 the interest paid on Labor created government net debt will be $4.38bn.

The interest payments on Labor’s debt will be 2½ times the flood levy. If it were not such an incompetent government there would no need for a flood levy but, of course, the government is incompetent. We have to pay off the $90-plus billion government debt before we even start to reduce interest payments. This all assumes that the terms of trade will remain as they have been and, as Access Economics has said, that cannot be assured anymore.

Mr Acting Deputy President, remind me on how many occasions, upon leaving office, has the Labor Party left our country in more debt. On how many occasions since leaving office, when it was defeated by the coalition, in all its iterations since 1901 has the Labor Party left our country in more debt? Let me give the Senate a clue. Labor has been defeated on seven occasions since Federation. How many times do you think, out of those seven times that Labor has been defeated, has it left this country in further debt? Do you want to take a guess?