Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to comment on a matter that Senator Cash has raised, and I share the concern of my leader, Senator Bob Brown, that this private members' time is being taken up by a matter allowing the coalition to continue a personal attack instead of dealing with matters of public importance. I mentioned this yesterday when Senator Sinodinos took the opportunity, in an incredible fall from grace, to spend his first matter of public importance for the year engaged in a personal attack on another senator rather than outlining a coalition policy or strategy.

The normal procedure for matters of public importance is to talk about matters that are important to the future of the nation, and I move:

That Senator Cash's motion be amended to insert the following words after 'Senator Cash':

but considers the call from the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Abbott) to debate Australia's economy, and his proposals which would lead to a $70 billion deficit and extensive job losses, as a more appropriate matter for debate in the Opposition's private senators' time.

I have a signed copy of the amendment and ask that it be delivered to the chair.

As to the matter of the coalition's black hole, it is quite extraordinary that the coalition would prefer to use private members' time to, in Senator Kroger's own words, 'be clumsily deflective and to refuse to have scrutiny and accountability for their actions'. That is precisely what the coalition is doing in relation to economic policy. What we have already is confirmation by Mr Robb, the shadow finance minister, of a $70 billion black hole, and Mr Hockey, of course, confirmed that, saying that the coalition faced the task of finding $50, $60 or $70 billion worth of savings. Mr Robb again confirmed in November last year that $70 billion was the order of magnitude of the coalition's black hole.

People listening to this debate must be asking themselves, 'How are the coalition going to deliver the surplus they say that they are going to deliver, when there is a $70 billion black hole already in their promises?' The coalition have said they want surpluses of one per cent of GDP rather than the 0.01 to 0.02 per cent that the government intends. That would mean finding more than an additional $10 billion a year. We heard from the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Abbott, at the Press Club, his aspirations on dental health and disability insurance—