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

What is this about? It is not about the budget yesterday—it was a 'fudge-it', and this is more of the same game: let us spend it in this financial year. I was just sitting in my seat and looking up at the young people in the gallery and thinking, 'I hope these youngsters get a good education and get a good-paying job, because they are going to have to pay a lot of tax.' They have got to pay $8 billion a year in tax, just for the interest bill alone. I have seen it all my life. I will say it again: give Labor the chequebook and they will empty the account; they will send you broke. It does not matter whether it is a state government or a federal government; that is how it has been all my life.

What sort of Australia are we leaving for our young ones when we have them wallowing in debt, when we raise the debt cap to $300 billion? To think that the government, when elected 4½ years ago, was debt free—totally debt free, with $60 billion in the bank for the Future Fund and future commitments for public servants—and now they have got a gross debt of $228 billion and they are raising the ceiling to $300 billion. They are mortgaging our children's future away. That is what this is about. This is simply cooking the books to get payments out before 30 June so they can say to the Australian people, come the following year: 'We are not going to borrow any money. We are going to be $1.5 billion in the black.' Wrong. If that were the case they would not be raising the debt ceiling by another $50 billion. That is the amazing thing.

They are saying they will have the budget in the black, but one thing we can be sure of is that because of this budget—or 'fudge-it' as I called it yesterday—there will be an August election next year. They cannot have it in September because of the football finals, and they will not go until October, because in September we will get the true figures for the financial year on their management. They will go to an election before that, before the Australian people get the truth. That is the biggest problem the government have got. The Australian people do not trust you. They do not trust you with your carbon tax. This is a cash splash of money thrown out to com­pensate for the carbon tax. People know the cost of living is hurting, and you are going to add to it come 1 July. That is all this is about.

We can rest assured that there will be an election by early September 2013, before Treasury and the Australian Office of Financial Management release the exact facts of this budget. And it will not be in the black. There will be more borrowing, more mortgaging away of our children's future. To think of the finances the government had in the bank when they were elected! I would say with confidence that we were the only nation in the world that was debt free. I said that to an American soldier at Hellfire Pass on Anzac Day and he said, 'Debt free?' and I said, 'Yes, we were debt free.' And now look at the financial mess the government have put us in. That is why we are debating this motion—so that the government can fudge the books again to get spending into this financial year and somehow save their political hide come the next election, whenever that is. It may be sooner rather than later. If the Independents Mr Oakeshott and Mr Windsor actually come to their senses, it may be sooner rather than later, and the Australian people can have their say.