George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy President. I was simply, through you, pointing out to Senator Collins that the Senate is a coequal chamber with the House of Representatives and happens to be the only chamber in the Australian parliament in session today. It was a remarkable speech by Senator Penny Wong because, on this very important parliamentary occasion, it was the Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate, not the Leader of the Government in the Senate, who responded on behalf of and in defence of the government to a motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition in this place, Senator Abetz. One might imagine that after his blundering, inarticulate, uneducated, incompetent effort in answering questions directed to him, in particular by my colleague Senator Sinodinos, that Senator Stephen Conroy was feeling a little sheepish. Nevertheless, on a motion of this kind it ought to be the Leader of the Government who defends the government, not the deputy.

Be that as it may, the other remarkable thing about Senator Penny Wong's speech today is that the subject of Senator Abetz's motion—that is, the mining tax—was barely mentioned by her. In 20 belligerent minutes, in 20 minutes of relentless negativity, there was barely a mention of the MRRT, the subject of the motion, because Senator Penny Wong, I suspect, is smart enough to know that she cannot defend the indefensible. She might be smart enough to be unable to defend the indefensible but Senator Penny Wong has not been smart enough as finance minister to be able to deliver a budget surplus.

We sat through question time after question time over the last year with Senator Penny Wong as finance minister. Not a day went by in question time throughout 2012 when Senator Penny Wong did not refer to 'the budget surplus' as if a surplus budget were locked in stone. In fact, humiliatingly, just before Christmas the Treasurer had to admit, as the opposition had said all along last year, that there would be no budget surplus in 2012-13 and there would be just another historically large deficit. In fact, if the electoral fates cast their judgement on this government on 14 September, or perhaps sooner, and the government were to go out of office later this year, it will be the first Australian government in living memory never, never to have produced a budget surplus. That, Senator Wong and Senator Conroy, will be your legacy.

We know that the previous government, the government of Mr John Howard and Mr Peter Costello, made budget surpluses the norm. It was the totem of their fiscal discipline. In the 12 budgets that Mr Peter Costello brought down, 10 of the 12 were surplus budgets. We know that in the previous period—

Senator Thorp interjecting—

Senator Thorp, I know you do not sit right at the top of the Labor Party tree, but the attitude you display by your interjection sums up the mindset of this government perfectly. As I said, the last government of Australia, the government of Mr John Howard and Mr Peter Costello, delivered 12 budgets and 10 of those 12 budgets were surplus budgets. I see my friend Senator Fifield nodding with satisfaction as I say that, because Senator Fifield, of course, was one of Mr Costello's senior advisers who can take some share of the credit for producing that magnificent outcome which put Australia in the best financial position in the world at the time of the change of government in 2007.

I do not want to be unfair to my Labor Party colleagues, because there have been previous Labor governments that have produced budget surpluses, too. In the previous period of Labor government, during the Hawke and Keating governments, there were several years in which the budget was in surplus. It was a Labor government and so in most years the budget was in deficit, of course, but in several of those 13 years the budget was in surplus. In the previous period, the government of Mr Malcolm Fraser, the budget returned to surplus. It might surprise you, Mr Deputy President, to learn that during the period of the government of Mr Gough Whitlam, who produced three budgets, in two of those years the budget was in surplus—the national debt went through the roof, of course, because of borrowing, Senator Ronaldson, but nevertheless in two of the three years of the Whitlam Labor government the budget was in surplus.

Of course, in the 23 glorious golden years of coalition government, which preceded the government of Gough Whitlam, the budget was in surplus. It might surprise you, Mr Deputy President, to learn that in the last year of the wartime Labor government, the government of Mr Curtin and Mr Chifley, the budget returned to surplus in 1949. In the prewar government of the United Australia Party, under Joseph Lyons and Robert Menzies, the budget was routinely in surplus, but then one gets to the government of Joseph Scullin and that was the last time—mercifully it was only in office for three years; the government was elected in 1929—that an Australian government went out of office having never produced a budget surplus.

Mr Deputy President, you would have to have been born in 1908 to have voted for the last Australian government never to produce a budget surplus. But that, Senator Penny Wong, is your legacy. Not only is it a hopeless legacy in historical terms but it is a hopeless legacy by your own definition of your own competence, because it was your leader, Senator Penny Wong, who said that 'the test of a government's capacity to manage the budget is the test of its competence'. That is what Julia Gillard said.