Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and Fair Competition) Share this | Hansard source

For the information of Senator Wong, I actually did explain to the principal and deputy principal of the school that I voted against it—I did; at the very opening. It happened to be the school I went to and my mother teaches at. So, if you want to begrudge me that, Senator Wong, do not question my honesty.

Why this betrayal of a surplus promise is so important is that it continues the pattern of excuses provided by this government as they seek to justify what has been an unprecedented increase in spending—one of the fastest run-ups in spending by a Commonwealth government since the Whitlam era. The government like to talk about the burden of taxation but they do not want to talk about the burden of taxation plus what they are borrowing. We now have hundreds of billions of borrowings, to which Australia is now exposed. We are a capital-importing country, and to have a capital-importing country add government debt to the burden of private sector debt exposes this country to risk.

What we have seen is excuse after excuse. We saw the global financial crisis. The write-down initially in revenues in that year, I believe, was marginally greater than the surplus the government were actually bequeathed by the previous government. We have seen the government complain about the very resources investment that Senator Thorp talked about earlier. Last year we had the government complaining that it was this very investment that was depressing tax revenues and making it harder for the government to balance the books.

But the truth is this: revenues for this government today are more than $70 billion higher this year than in the year they came to office—$70 billion more this year than when they came to office. What that tells the people is that the government have a spending problem—a huge spending problem. The government are unable to restrain themselves, not just in spending increasing tax revenues; they are unable to restrain themselves from borrowing to pork-barrel and borrowing to send out money to favoured groups at the expense of future taxpayers in this country.

This surplus was the litmus test this government set themselves. This surplus was bragged about during the stimulus debates of early 2009. I remember two budgets ago the headline in one of our newspapers was 'Back in the black'. Whenever anyone on this side questioned whether or not they would bring forward a surplus, they were pilloried. They were accused of being economically irresponsible and, ironically, not having faith in the Treasury. But we now know that the government were bluffing all along, because all we hear is excuse after excuse as to why they have been unable to control their spending.

We are going to hear more, I imagine, in the lead-up to the next budget about savings or 'saves'—to use the jargon the government try to use to sound like they have some control over the budget. But we know that more than two-thirds of the savings this government brought in here have actually been tax hikes on the Australian people. And now we are seeing a big target placed over the future of every Australian who wants some independence in retirement. We are now seeing a big target, a big bullseye, to actually say, 'We are coming after your money—money you have saved; money the government have in fact prohibited you from accessing through the compulsory superannuation scheme; money the government have done deals in the past with unions whereby you might not receive a pay rise but you get a super payment.' Now the government are going to say to those on an income of $50,000 a year—which is what a million dollars would buy a 65-year-old—'We are going to go after that pile of money that is yours merely to feed our incredible spending problem.' The government have shown that they cannot be trusted, and this surplus is the greatest betrayal of all.

Question agreed to.