Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I will take that. The brilliant Deputy Leader of the Opposition says that the economy barely has a pulse! What a brilliant contribution that is! We had 3.1 per cent growth through the year. That is something most advanced economies would give their right arm for, and yet another example of the way those opposite believe it is entirely appropriate to talk down the Australian economy. Australian workers do not thank you for that, Australian families do not thank you for that and Australian businesses do not thank you for that because we know that talking down the economy is not good for the economy. It is quite clear that those opposite are quite happy to put political advantage above the national interest every single time. Every single time, they will put political advantage above the national interest. I was talking about the cash rate, and I know those opposite promised that interest rates would always be lower under them. Can everyone remember that? Interest rates would always be lower under a coalition government. Well, they are lower under us. Despite the fact those opposite want to forget this, they are lower under a Labor government, and, of course, we see inflation being contained.

Those opposite want to have a debate about the economy, and we are very happy to have a debate about the economy. We are very happy also to have a debate about our fiscal position, because, yet again, we hear those opposite saying things which are completely untrue. I make this point to the chamber: we have a AAA credit rating with a stable outlook from all three international ratings agencies. So the question I would ask is this: do you believe Senator Abetz or do you believe the ratings agencies? Do you believe the markets, which show confidence in the Australian economy, or do you believe Senator Abetz? Do you believe market commentators and people investing in Australia? We have investment that is approaching the highest percentage of GDP in the nation's history. Do you believe people who are investing in our economy or do you believe those opposite, who are scaremongering for nothing more than political purposes? The reality is that those opposite have no idea when it comes to the economy and no idea when it comes to public finances.

I will make another couple of points about spending and about the budget. Of the 12 coalition budgets that were handed down, nine of them showed higher spending as a percentage of GDP—nine out of 12—so higher spending as a proportion of GDP than now. I would also make this point: when you look at our last five budgets plus the last mid-year review, we have delivered $154 billion worth of saves. That is eight times the number of savings delivered by the Liberals in their last five budgets when, of course, we remember that there was revenue coming in hand over fist to government that they frittered away and failed to invest in skills or in infrastructure or in anything of long-term benefit to the nation.

Today, the coalition want to talk about the government. Let us talk about the things that they do not want to talk about. I would like to remind them that they say we should not be funding anything and that all of this expenditure associated with the mining tax should be avoided. It is really interesting that they are also agreeing to match the government when it comes to the superannuation guarantee. I am interested to see—it has gone very quiet, and I know that Mr Robb was rolled by Mr Abbott in this—if they ever fess up to the Australian people, given that they want to abolish the carbon price and abolish the mining tax, how they propose to fund the increase in the superannuation guarantee levy. It is yet another example of those opposite refusing to give any costings to the Australian people.

Let us remind Australians and the chamber of the things that the coalition do not want to talk about. They do not want to talk about the cuts that they want to implement should they win government. Let us remind ourselves about some of what we already know. We know that they want to give a tax hike to all low-income workers. Everybody earning under $80,000 a year that gets a tax cut under us will get a tax hike under the coalition by removing the tax-free threshold changes that Labor put in place. This shows their values; this shows their priorities: 'Let's hack into workers earning under $80,000 a year'.

What else will they do? They will roll back the low-income superannuation contribution. They want to impose a tax hike on 3.6 million Australians—the lowest-paid Australian workers. So, tax hikes on people earning up to $80,000 and an additional tax hike on people on the lowest incomes—the lowest-income workers in Australia, of whom the majority are women. 2.1 million of the 3.6 million people in this country who benefit from that super tax rate that a Labor government is implementing will get hit, should the coalition win power.

What does this speak to us about? It shows what their values are. It shows that the first people in line when a Liberal Party and a National Party are looking for cuts are low-paid Australians. That is what it shows. Low-paid Australians are the first ones in line for cuts and tax increases should a coalition government be elected. It says something very clear about the difference in values between this side of the chamber and those opposite. Those opposite want to go hard on low-income Australians; we want to support low-income Australians. That is the difference between the two sides of parliament.

I also want to make this point: we also know the game plan for those opposite. The game plan can be very clearly seen in what we see, particularly in Queensland, where before an election they do not actually want to tell people very much about what they want to do because it is so bad. We know what Liberals do: they cut health, they cut education and they cut services. That is what they do. We know that is what Liberals do.

What we are hearing is those opposite yet again saying, 'We actually do not want to tell people about that. We know we have to say a few things—that we are going to increase taxes on everyone earning up to $80,000. We know we have to say something about the low-income super contribution—we are going to tell people that. But we are not going to talk about anything else.' We saw that game-playing in Queensland. We saw what Premier Newman did in Queensland. He told people that he would not be too radical, and what did we see: cuts to health and cuts to education. That is what we are seeing and that is what Liberals do.

We know that because over and over again the opposition are avoiding any scrutiny when it comes to their budget position or when it comes to details of their policies. They come in here and they want to talk to us about the mining tax. What I would say to you is this: when will you tell us anything about how you will pay for anything you are promising—anything about what you will do? We know that in this economic team—among those opposite there is no Peter Costello, let me tell you—since Mr Hockey has been in his position, there has never once been delivered a policy costing which added up. He has never once delivered a policy costing that added up. Instead of making sure that it adds up, what is he doing? 'We just will not put them out. That is what we will do—we will not actually put them out.'

How do we know? Before the last election, they used a Western Australian accounting firm that was subsequently found to have acted unprofessionally. This was your budget position: an $11 billion black hole was discovered by Treasury and by Finance after the election. And what have we seen since then? We have seen another botched attempt at costings where you have used a catering company to put forward your costings.

This coalition has had such an embarrassing history when it comes to anything fiscal, when it comes to any policy costings, when it comes to any transparency and when it comes to fessing up to the Australian people about anything they will do. They have the hide to come in here and say they want a debate on taxation and the economy. What a joke! I think that everybody here knows precisely what a joke it is.

You had the opportunity in this question time if you really cared about some of the things you say you care about. We hear Senator Abetz whining about how little time they had on the MRRT package—in excess of nearly 15 hours of debate—and they say that they did not have enough time, that they never get the opportunity to talk about policy. Well, you had the opportunity today to ask ministers questions. You could have asked about the National Disability Insurance Scheme, but you do not want to do that. You could have asked about education, but you do not want to do that. You could have asked about jobs, but you do not want to do that. You could have asked about the economy, but you do not want to do that. All you want to do is continue the relentless negativity, and complete absence of any positive plans for the future of the nation, that you have become known for. That is the sum total of the contribution of this opposition to today's political debate.