Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, it is magic money. This is just so infuriating. I have been talking for years about where our debt has been going. Since then, it has not got better; it has got worse every time. I do not understand why this government does not get why we have got ourselves in such a bind. We now have, by reason of this debt, the lowest expenditure on defence as a percentage of GDP since 1938. You might say that we do not need that insurance policy. I suppose you do not need to have an insurance policy against your house burning down either, except when it burns down and then you do need it. We have put ourselves in this dire predicament. With this client called the government, we can see it is all starting to come unstuck. Everything is starting to rattle and the wheels are starting to fall off it.

Our Prime Minister is over in Rio somewhere. I do not know when she is coming back—maybe she is not. I do not know what is happening there. In the midst of all this chaos we have the former Attorney-General—good luck to him; I think he is an honourable person—asking serious questions that have to be answered about issues pertaining to the past. We did not put this on the agenda. The former Attorney-General of the Commonwealth of Australia has said that there are issues pertaining to the Australian Workers Union and funds that were—we do not know—misappropriated. Questions have to be answered and unfortunately they tie up to the current Prime Minister of Australia and her role at that point of time in the establishment of accounts that were used for the divestment of those funds. It is in the paper today: the front page of the Australian Financial Review. Where did it come from? Not from our side. It came from the Labor Party's side.

This is the chaos that has beset our nation. To improve the financial framework of where we are, to try to get the show back on the road, we have to make some changes now and then get to an election as quickly as possible. For the sake of our nation, not for the sake of the Labor Party or the Liberal Party or the Greens or the Nationals, we must take back control of these finances. You will only know that is happening when, instead of seeing the debt go up, you start to see the debt go down.