David Bushby (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise also to take note of answers given by Senator Wong to questions asked by Senators Abetz, Cormann and Sinodinos. I note Senator Feeney was referring to allegations that the Howard government was the highest spending government as a percentage of taxation over GDP—something which Senator Wong also referred to in her answers to questions. But this of course is not the best way of actually determining whether a government is a wastefully spending government. What you really need to look at is a combination of both tax and borrowings, because borrowings is of course deferred taxation. If you only look at the taxation as a percentage of GDP you are not getting the full picture, you are not getting the full understanding of how much money a government of the day is actually spending as a percentage of the overall economy. The truth requires that you look at both tax and borrowings and then look at that percentage. A better indicator would be spending as a percentage of GDP rather than taxation.