Matt Thistlethwaite (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This matter of public importance this evening is a perfect irony because it mentions the words 'cooked books'. Who wrote the book on accounting tricks? Who made an art form of fiddling the figures? Who are the patrons of nobbling the numbers in this country? If you go to the encyclopaedia and look up the term 'cooked books', four words appear—'Liberal Party of Australia'. That is the definition in the encyclopaedia of 'cooked books'. Some people may say I am taking a partisan critical view of the Liberal Party and that is understandable. I am not the biggest advocate of Liberal Party policies, I must say. But do not take it from me; take it from the Institute of Chartered Accountants, the independent body established by the accounting profession in this country to self-regulate accountants and auditors, to ensure that the people of Australia can trust and have faith in accounting, in accounting practices and in accounting firms.

What was the view of the Institute of Chartered Accountants regarding the Liberal Party of Australia and their election costings? Their view was simple. They fined the Liberal Party of Australia's accountants $5,000 each—two partners—for breaches of professional standards. One may ask how this situation came about. How did it come to pass that the Liberal Party of Australia's accountants received fines for breaches of professional standards? It is quite simple. They received fines because they agreed to audit the Liberal Party of Australia's election costings at the 2010 election. They agreed to produce a work of fiction, to produce a fantasy, to dress it up as reality. In fact, they were hoodwinked by Joe Hockey, they were hoodwinked by Andrew Robb and they were hoodwinked by the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott.

It is incumbent upon me to explain the circumstances under which the Liberal Party of Australia received these fines from the Institute of Chartered Accountants. At the last election, when it came time to submit their election costings to Treasury—a process which they are again opposing and refusing to do for the people of Australia—they came up $11 billion short. It was not $11 million, it was not $111 million, it was not $1 billion but $11 billion. There was an $11 billion black hole in their election costings.

Can you imagine it if a large corporation, if a managed investment scheme, if a superannuation trust produced accounts that were $11 billion in the red and tried to dress them up as if they had balanced the books? Any shareholder, any investor, any superannuation member would be livid, they would be angry. Importantly, they would want the person to be prosecuted. What was the view of Andrew Robb prior to the last election when the process of submitting election costings was criticised by the government, by Treasury and by the media? As the shadow finance minister, Andrew Robb's comment was, talking about their accountants:

If they make a mistake with the auditing of accounts for companies or prospectuses or mislead, they are at risk of being punished and going to jail.

They nearly did. The Liberal Party of Australia's accountants nearly went to jail because they teamed up with the Liberal Party and attempted to dress up these figures which were shown not to be election costings and say that they were an audited set of accounts. What did the Institute of Chartered Accountants find in respect of the fictional work produced by the Liberal Party? They imposed the fines on the Liberal Party's accountants because their costings of coalition policies failed to contain 'a statement that the procedures performed do not constitute either an audit or a review'. That was the view of the independent Institute of Chartered Accountants, the body set up by the accounting profession to self-regulate and ensure that the Australian people have trust and confidence in audited accounts in this country. The Liberal Party failed. The Liberal Party let down the people of Australia.

Prior to that they were saying that the people of Australia can have trust and confidence in their accounts, that the Liberal Party's figures can be trusted. In fact, Joe Hockey, the shadow Treasurer at the time said:

You know what? If the fifth-biggest accounting firm in Australia signs off on our numbers it is a brave person to start saying there are accounting tricks. I tell you it is audited. This is an audited statement.'

They were the words of the shadow Treasurer of Her Majesty's opposition. Then of course the independent Institute of Chartered Accountants found that to be a lie, found that to be a furphy, found that to be a work of fiction. It was not the case at all. The Liberal Party managed to convince—probably reluctantly—a poor firm of small business people, accountants, to sign off on a set of accounts that obviously were not audited books. This is the approach that those opposite take to our nation's finances. They come in here and have the hide and the temerity to criticise this government for delivering a budget surplus, for delivering a set of social programs and for delivering a pathway to economic growth that is fully costed and covered by the revenues in the forward estimates. They claim to be an alternative government, when in reality they are not.

Do not take it from me. Take it from Laura Tingle, writing in the Financial Review on 3 September 2010, in response to this trickery by those opposite in seeking to produce audited accounts to the Australian public in 2010. She said:

… they are liars and clunkheads.

But whatever the combination, they are not fit to govern.

That was the view of Laura Tingle, writing in the Financial Review in 2010 in the wake of this trickery by the Liberal Party of Australia in trying to deceive the Australian public into believing that their election costings would balance the books. Now they are trying to fit up the Australian public again. They come in here and criticise this government for producing a balanced budget, for producing costings covering all of the expenditure items in the forward year and the forward estimates, but they will not indicate to the Australian people how they intend to fund any of these reckless promises that they are making in their election commitments.

We find, through leaks from the shadow cabinet, that they are planning $70 billion worth of cuts to programs and services in this country. I believe, as a representative of New South Wales, that the people of my state have the right to know how the alternative government in this country is going to meet that $70 billion cut in services. Where will the cuts come from? Perhaps some of those opposite who speak after me can enlighten the Senate and the Australian public: which programs are you intending to cut from the federal budget? Will it be the childcare rebate? Will it be the increases to superannuation and retirement incomes that are programmed as part of this government's commitment to retirement incomes and workers? Will it be the increases in the pensions that are foreshadowed in this budget? Will it be the family tax benefit increases that are a crucial part of this federal government's budget? Why won't they and why can't they explain to the Australian people what cuts they are going to make to services and programs in our economy?

When the Leader of the Opposition replies to the budget on Thursday evening, we will get the same trickery, the same platitudes, the same rhetoric about being able to balance the budget, to deliver all these programs that they are promising whilst at the same time getting rid of the minerals resource rent tax and removing the carbon-pricing legislation yet somehow managing to meet their commitment to reduce carbon emissions in our economy by five per cent. Quite simply, they are not fit to manage our economy. They are not fit to manage the local corner store, let alone a $330 billion economy, with the faith and trust of the Australian people.

This week the Labor government delivered the budget, and it is a solid financial and economic management process to manage our economy back to a system of long-term growth, a system that will ensure that, as we reach that long-term growth trajectory, we do so in a non-inflationary manner, we do so by protecting jobs and we do so by promoting investment in our economy. The budget sets out a $1.5 billion surplus over this year, growing to $7.5 billion by 2015-16—again a process of transition to growth over a period of time coming off the back of the write-down in revenue that occurred because of the global financial crisis.

Our policies will iron out the ripples in industry composition of growth, ensuring that the right conditions are in place for non-mining sectors to share in the growth of the minerals boom. We are doing this of course through the minerals resource rent tax, diverting some of the superprofits that are made by these companies back into retirement incomes, into rural and regional infrastructure and into support for small businesses.

In this budget there is plenty of support for small business. From 2012-13 companies will be able to carry back tax losses of up to $1 million so they can get a refund against the tax that they have previously paid. From 1 July they will be able to immediately write off capital equipment expenditure in a particular year up to the value of $6,500. That is met with an instant write-off on vehicles up to the value of $5,000 in the year 2012-13. We have got an agreement through COAG to reduce red tape and we are working through that process with the various state governments. And of course we are rolling out the National Broadband Network, which will see improvements in productivity and ways of doing business in this country.

Last week I was fortunate to travel to Luke Hartsuyker's electorate of Cowper on the North Coast, where I met with representatives of Coffs Harbour City Council. They were telling me how overwhelmingly supportive they were of the Labor Party's program to roll out the NBN. They could not wait for the NBN to come to the North Coast of New South Wales. They get it: they see the advantages that will come in investment. Already, creative industries are beginning to set up in the Coffs Harbour area, in that local government area. Finally, when they have the NBN, those businesses will be able to thrive because they will not have to be based in Sydney. They will have the broadband capacity to send digital files that are produced in those regional areas to Sydney and to Melbourne. They see the job creation opportunities. They have produced a program called Coffs Connect, and they are ready. They are ready to sign up and be part of this revolution that will occur in the digital economy in Australia because of the National Broadband Network. They understand the productivity improvements that will be made because of this important economic program.

The budget contains a wealth of support for families over the coming 12 months and in the forward estimates. The family tax benefit A will be increased from 1 July 2013. That will benefit 1.1 million families in this country. The supplementary allowance will increase by $210 for singles and by $350 for couples. The schoolkids bonus, which we are just about to debate in this chamber, will provide much-needed relief for parents as they meet the costs of sending their kids to school. There are tax cuts for families. There is an increase in the tax-free threshold from $6,000 to $18,000. There are increases in pensions programmed in from 1 July this year. As well as that we are meeting our commitment to deliver a national disability insurance scheme. We are boosting the amount of funding going to aged care and increasing the number of aged-care places in our economy as our population ages.

We are continuing our investments in rural and regional infrastructure in this country. We are pushing up retirement incomes and of course we are doing this in the context of growing our economy.