Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers given by Senator Wong and I cannot avoid addressing some of the issues that Senator Feeney has just raised. The budget surplus is maths; it is not science. You have manipulated science to create a revenue with your carbon tax. We know how you can manipulate things.

The finance minister has only one response when she is questioned on anything in relation to this—just slag the opposition. Senator Feeney has just made an art form of addressing my colleague in the lower House, the shadow Treasurer, Joe Hockey—blame the opposition for everything. It is as if Senator Feeney and Senator Wong think that we actually are the government. I remind the minister that the coalition has been out of office since November 2007—4.25 years ago—and they are still referring to it.

Minister, take responsibility for your own actions and the actions of the Labor-Greens government you represent. Stop bagging all those on this side of the chamber for your mismanagement of the economy. We have not had the treasury bench for 4.25 years! As a finance minister, you have direct responsibility for the spending in other portfolios of the Gillard-Brown administra­tion. How about directing your attention to curbing the spendthrift impulses of your ministerial colleagues? The problem is that Labor and the Greens believe the only way to govern is by spending the money of taxpayers. It is not your money. It is raised from every Australian that pays taxes. You would not run your own bank account by spending more than you earn, so adopt the same approach to the finances of govern­ment. It is very simple.

I know that a surplus in the budget is not a concept that the Rudd-Gillard governments are familiar with. My colleague, the member for Longman, Wyatt Roy, reminded me only last night that he was not even alive when the Labor Party delivered its last surplus, and he is in his 22nd year. It is called a balance—you have got to find a balance—and for the sake of all Australians you have got to get back to it.

Senator Feeney talked about 'crab-walking'. It is economics 101. Hands up on the other side those who have ever run a private company that has done a capital raising. Let the record show that no hands go up! Hands up on the other side those who have ever had to have a repayment—