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

Senator Wong was interjecting there, but the reality is that spending gives you a much better idea, particularly if you take into account those things that are off budget, like the NBN—another spending which this government is incurring which formed part of its $120 billion budget black hole.

So let us have a look at the $120 billion budget black hole that this government is facing. It is now presenting Australians with this black hole, and it is growing by the day. A lot of the spending that is being added to this black hole is occurring because the government is desperate. It is looking to make promises—to solve problems all over the place—but there is no money to back it up. The government thinks that it can promise the world and it will worry about how it will pay for it later. The budget bottom line has already been hit by Labor's multibillion dollar blowout on border protection, as an example. Labor's budget will be further hit by massive unfunded commitments in disability services, defence, education, dental and maybe even now childcare payments to private sector employees.

Australians are entitled to ask where the money is coming from. We asked Minister Wong that question today, but the minister's answers were certainly deficient and the only option she had when asked those questions was the classic Labor Party tactic of divert and attack and to try to turn it all around and attack the opposition, using the spurious lines that it uses against us. Labor does not know where the money is going to come from. It has no idea. It is just going out and making promises, with no ability to actually back up those spending commitments with real dollars. In doing so, it is raising the hopes of Australians that a lot of these very serious issues—things that actually do need consideration—are going to be dealt with by this government, when the reality is that the money just is not there to be able to do that. The government continues to make heroic promises and there is no detail of where the money is coming from.

Let us look at what that $120 billion budget black hole is comprised of. It is important to remember that this $120 billion budget black hole is not actually included in the budget. This is all over and above the money that the government has indicated that it is going to spend in the budget. So what have we got? We have got the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which represents about $10½ billion a year once fully operational from 2018-19 and the many billions that are needed to be spent to get the thing up and running between now and 2018-19. In aged care, the government has promised a further $3.7 billion in new money over the next five years. For low-paid workers, there is an extra $1 billion government contribution to Fair Work Australia for the pay rise for social and community sector workers—taking the total commitment to $3 billion to 2021.

For offshore processing, there is $2.1 billion for reopening Nauru and Manus Island, on top of the cost blow-out that has already occurred as a result of the huge increase in numbers of people arriving by boat. The increase in the refugee intake to 20,000 is estimated to cost an extra $1.4 billion over the forward estimates. In defence, there is $36 billion for submarines and $16 billion for joint strike fighters—all unaccounted for. The Greens dental care scheme that they have been pushed into—a $4 billion package which was announced on 29 August 2012—is unfunded. There is $6.5 billion a year for implementation of the Gonski education reforms. But the Prime Minister has tried to hide the true cost by placing it outside the forward estimates.

Then there are Labor's off-budget commitments of $50 billion for the NBN and the $10 billion for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. I could go further but, with $120 billion unfunded, where is the money coming from?