Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

They are very sensitive about this, aren’t they? What they do not like is this: they have a $10.6 billion black hole from the election, where they did not cost their election policies properly. They claim that is not true, but who do you believe: the Australian Treasury, the Department of Finance and Deregulation or Mr Robb and Mr Hockey? I leave people to make their own judgment on that.

Secondly, on this issue, as I was saying: where is Mr Robb, the great shadow finance minister who has been lecturing the government about fiscal responsibility and who likes to talk about structural deficits? Well, you are adding to it now. You want to talk about a structural deficit: $1.7 billion over four years, and increasing the Commonwealth’s unfunded liability by $6.2 billion. The question is: why is Mr Robb letting this happen? Where is Mr Robb when it comes to senators in this place using private senators’ time to impose unfunded costs on the federal budget? This is a gross act of fiscal irresponsibility. That is in addition of course to the position the government has previously put and holds on this bill in relation to where these sorts of money bills should originate. These are matters for the House of Representatives and for the executive government, as you would have asserted and complied with when you were in government. I say this to my counterpart, Mr Robb: you set yourself up as the guardian of fiscal responsibility. Mr Robb loves to beat his chest and he loves to pontificate about responsible spending. As he said recently: ‘Spending, spending, spending—more commitments, bigger structural deficits off into the future using all the mining industry’s money. What a disgrace.’ Well, he is right. And he could be describing his own party’s position, because that is the approach that you are taking today in this chamber.

The Australian Government Actuary has made clear the impacts of this decision. We know that this bill will increase expenditure over time; it rises significantly over time. Annual expenditure growth as a result of the changes you are proposing might be less than only $100 million, for example, in 2014-15, but in 2029-30 it grows to over half a billion dollars. You cannot fund that, you know you cannot and you have no intention of ever doing so. The evidence for that is what you did in government, when you never put this forward because you knew you would never fund it. You cannot fund it now, you will not fund it now, you did not fund it in government and all you are doing is seeking to play a bit of politics with this issue.

This is an important piece of legislation, because if this bill gets up, if senators on that side vote for it, it will confirm that the Liberal and National parties are completely fiscally reckless. It will show that despite the talk of fiscal responsibility they never back it up. And it will show that Mr Robb has no influence in the opposition party room. If he had some spine as shadow finance minister he would not allow this to come forward, because it is not the act of a fiscally responsible party and certainly not the act of a fiscally responsible party of government. It is extraordinary that for all the criticisms the opposition has made of the Australian Greens on this issue—and we do not agree with the revenue proposition they have put forward—when the Greens have actually taken a more fiscally responsible position. How embarrassing for the coalition. The Liberal Party is supposedly the party of fiscal responsibility, but the Australian Greens have been more fiscally responsible than the opposition. I have one question: where is Mr Robb when his party comes into this chamber and seeks to put a $1.7 billion fiscal impost over four years on the fiscal balance?