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

I will begin with Senator Sterle's comments about jobs. It is quite amazing that the reduction in company tax is no longer there. Let me quote the Prime Minister:

If you are against cutting company tax, you are against economic growth. If you are against economic growth, then you are against jobs.

Those were the words of the Prime Minister. She is obviously against jobs because the government is not going to cut the company tax rate. I am sorry to see that Senator Sterle is leaving the chamber, because I want to talk about the treatment of the transport industry in this budget.

Mr Deputy President, as you know, when the GST came in on 1 July 2000, 18½c of excise per litre was returned to the truckies. Of the 38c excise, truckies paid a road user charge of 19½c and the remaining 18½c went back to the them. Now the truckies are going to get only 12½c back. This government has taken 6c a litre from every truckie in Australia. That will apply to any truck with a tare weight of 4½ tonnes or more. The transport industry uses eight billion litres of diesel a year, so that 6c equates to an extra $480 million. That is how much tax the government is adding to our transport industry. But it gets worse: on 1 July 2014 the Labor government's carbon tax is going to add almost 7c a litre to the truckies' diesel tax. That will be another $515 million on top of the $480 million—$1 billion extra a year in diesel tax on our truckies, the people who carry our nation. Yet the government says it is creating jobs. Of course, regional Australia will be the worst affected by this. The town where I live does not have a railway line. Everything comes in on the road; all our exports, our cattle from abattoirs and our wheat all go out on the road. It is a tax on regional Australia especially.

Talking about the budget, we will never see this amazing $1.5 billion surplus. We will probably have an election in August next year before the real figures are released in September next year, because the figures will show the budget in the red because the government will be borrowing again. The government has said that it is allowing for an extra $39 billion increase in revenue. It is not going to get that. It will not get an extra $39 billion. We have a five per cent deterioration in our terms of trade, business is quiet—of course the mining industry is doing well in some areas, but retail sales are quiet—and regional Australia is doing it tough, especially in those areas that do not have mines. That money will not come in.

According to the budget two years ago, the government was going to borrow $12 billion. Twelve months ago that had become more than $22 billion. Six months ago it went to $37 billion. Now, as we found out yesterday, it has gone to $44 billion that is going to be borrowed in this financial year alone. To have budgeted two years ago to borrow $12 billion and have it now come in at $44 billion is not even a good guess. That is not projecting budget forecasts or being anywhere close to forecasts; it is simply a bad guess. That is why the Australian people do not trust this government. They do not trust this government because of its broken promises on the carbon tax, they do not trust it because of its waste of money on school buildings, pink batts and the so-called stimulus package—job creating programs that have led us into this much debt and that have of course had a huge effect on raising interest rates over that period. If we are going to have a budget surplus of $1.5 billion, why are we raising the credit limit to $300 billion? Senator Joyce asked Senator Wong what would be the gross dollar amount at which it would peak. Would it be $278 billion? Would it be $290 billion? We could not get an answer. That is nothing unusual from Senator Wong. Tell us the truth. Let the Australian people know the truth.

We know your history of managing money. Throughout my life I have seen that every time a Labor government has been elected in a state or here in Canberra it has sent us broke. No mistake; it happens all the time, and this government is no exception. It is amazing that road funding is going to be reduced by so much. The government is taking money out of roads but talks about looking after infrastructure and productivity. This budget will never deliver a surplus. In September 2013 we will find out the real facts.

Question agreed to.