Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, and I have mentioned the bill, Senator Evans. It reflects this underlying concern. The government talks about intergenerational fairness and social justice all the time. Well, tell me, what is so just about leaving an IOU to future generations and kicking that bucket down the road? Where is the intergenerational equity in leaving billions of dollars in debt for kids yet to be born? As Peter Costello famously said when he was reflecting on the Intergenerational reportone of the great landmark documents of the last coalition government: 'Intergenerational inequity, in the end, is intergenerational theft.' And everyone, every member of this parliament, should be aware of that. None of us should ever forget it.

There is a wonderful book based on the BBC Radio 4 Reith lectures of 2012, and I urge my colleagues in the Senate to read it. It is by Professor Niall Ferguson, who is an eminent British historian. In it he talks about the partnerships between generations, and he quotes Edmund Burke, the great conservative philosopher. Professor Ferguson writes:

In his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Edmund Burke wrote that the real social contract is not Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s contract between the sovereign and the people or “general will”, but the “partnership” between the generations.

In Edmund Burke's words:

Society is indeed a contract … The state … is … a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.

That is what Edmund Burke said in 1790. Professor Ferguson goes on to say:

In the enormous intergenerational transfers implied by current fiscal policies we see a shocking and perhaps unparalleled breach of precisely that partnership …

He also goes on to say:

I want to suggest that the biggest challenge facing mature democracies is how to restore the social contract between the generations.

To summarise the book and summarise the problem confronting Western nations, it is that: 'The biggest challenge facing mature democracies,'—Australia being prominent among them—'is how to restore the social contract between the generations.'

As Professor Ferguson knows, with current policies in the West, we are stealing the future of our young people. That is the problem. The are reflected in this bill. Governments are unable to resist the rent seekers and the interest groups, so they have to take the retirement savings of citizens to balance today's budget. The challenge for this government—indeed, for all governments in the future—will be to resist the rent seekers, to resist interest groups, and to start representing future generations. I am not suggesting for a second that it is easy. It is difficult for this government and it will be difficult for any government.

The test should always be this: is any expenditure proposed by government justifiable to the young and to the yet-to-be-born? I phrase it like this: if you are going to spend money, could you, in a hypothetical sense, justify that expenditure to your yet-to-be-born grandson or granddaughter? Could you justify the expenditure of that money to your yet-to-be-born grandchildren? If you can, maybe you should spend it. But, if you cannot, if it is to satisfy interest groups, if it is to satisfy rent seekers, if it is to satisfy the particular urgings of groups, if it is simply to win an election and if, by doing that, you bankrupt the future of those children, it is not worth it.

There is a crisis in the Western world. The United States is facing a fiscal cliff. I have only had the time this afternoon to talk about public debt. If you add public debt to private debt, well, God help us all. But this is the issue that is going to confront this government. It will confront the next Abbott government if we get the opportunity to govern. When we spend money, the test for us as well should be—and I do not mind saying this on the record—whether we can justify this expenditure to our children and our grandchildren, not just so we can live a more luxurious lifestyle, not just so we can feel better about ourselves and not just so we can live in greater comfort. No, that will not cut it anymore in the West. Those days are finished.

We have seen what has happened over the last 70 years since the end of World War II—and it is a disgrace. It is a disgrace because the politicians gave in to those rent seekers and those interest groups, and they bankrupted the future of their own children and their grandchildren. There is no money left to pay for social welfare in the social democratic Europe. How are they even going to service the debt? There is rising unemployment and rising social unrest, and they do not know how to get out of the spiral. I know that it is not quite that bad in Australia. I accept that and I think we all accept that.

What I am concerned about and what the coalition is concerned about is this: if we go the same way as western Europe, because it is very tempting, if we go the same way as the United States, if we start to give in to every interest group running around Australia, we too will start heading towards a cliff. Hopefully, someone will stop this nation before we hit the ground, before we hit the bottom of the fiscal cliff. We owe it not just to ourselves, not just to the nation at the moment, but to our children and our grandchildren, and their future. For whatever we do in this parliament in the future, what we cannot do is mortgage their future just so we can live a little more comfortably today.

I know the job of finance minister is extraordinarily difficult and the balances that have to be undertaken are always hard. But I make this plea: whoever is in government must not make the same mistakes as western Europe and the United States, and that someone in the end must stand up for and must talk for our children and our grandchildren and their future. It is not just about how we live today.