John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is amazing how Senator Cameron has to talk about the past. He cannot talk about the present—the factions and the disputes. As Senator Cameron heads for the doors I am reminded of when he said, 'Kevin Rudd has my total support as Prime Minister,' and a few hours later Mr Rudd was politically decapitated. Now Senator Cameron is doing a bolt from the chamber like the horses down the straight at Flemington instead of sitting here and listening to what I am about to say. How disappointing. Please listen, Senator Cameron. Come back, don't bolt!

Where do we start? We can start with government spending. Today interest rates went down by a quarter of a per cent. I think that is a great thing, but I ask the question: why? Why did we have seven interest rate rises in the first place? Why did the official rate go from 3.0 per cent to 4.75 per cent? Well, the Reserve Bank raised them because the government had their foot on the accelerator, borrowing money and wasting it throughout the economy. Our debt as of last Friday was $215.6 billion. To the people listening on radio, how many generations of your children are going to be mortgaged away with $215.6 billion of debt?

Where was the money spent? There was the pink batts fiasco, where $1.8 billion was spent to put insulation into ceilings. Now they are going to spend another $1 billion to take it out and have it policed.