Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

In the committee today we have had quite a bit of discussion about modesty, whether that be the society of modest members or modest debt. All modesty seems to be going out the window in relation to this bill. While we are on the subject of modesty, I much prefer the words of Modest Mouse. There is a line in their song that says, 'Could we change the subject now?' and that is exactly what the coalition seems to be seeking to do with this legislation. We have gone from a budget emergency to an unlimited debt ceiling. That is the question before the chamber today with this legislation.

We all saw the coalition campaign against debt before the election, and now they are asking the parliament for an unlimited increase in the debt limit. There was good reason why in government we put forward that there should be an explicit cap on debt. It was so that it could be rationalised before the parliament, so that this place could ask itself what modest, responsible debt looked like. Now it seems that the government in this parliament is asking this chamber to vote on that question without MYEFO, without a midyear economic plan, without all of the infrastructure documentation and plans—the very substance of economic policy that Senator Sinodinos refers to. We are told to wait for that substance next week. This question about the debt limit is before this chamber now, and I think it is irresponsible for us to be asked to make this decision without that information. We are being asked to blindly tick off for an unlimited credit card for our nation.

They truly have changed the subject from the so-called 'budget emergency'. When they were in opposition Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey used to tell us about it day in, day out and all during the election campaign. It has all but disappeared. Now the question before this chamber is for an unlimited, uncapped debt ceiling for our nation. If we had anything like a real debt emergency in this country, anything like a real budget emergency, we would have had MYEFO by now and you would have had to put your savings on the table now. Instead this place has been subject to the complete opposite. In fact it has been through the media. Hey presto, we had the RBA given an $8.8 billion grant which counts against the 2013 budget deficit. As Glenn Stevens pointed out, the strategy will see higher government dividends returned in later years.

So I ask you, Minister: why won't you tell the chamber now what you are going to tell us next week? It is quite extraordinary that, when you are so far down these plans, it can be only political manoeuvring on your part that you seek to put this question to this place before we actually see your MYEFO laid out. I think it really shows what economic fringe dwellers the coalition are truly capable of being. It is quite an extraordinary play on their part given the economic rhetoric that comes out of the coalition for pure political convenience most of the time. I cannot fathom why it is brought back to this place with this kind of question, other than by the idea that you just want to play pure politics. You raise the cry of a budget emergency, and then one of the very first pieces of legislation that you bring to this place is for an unlimited debt ceiling.

I understand what Senator Sinodinos said when he said, 'Yes, we want a $500 billion cap,' but instead it is a matter of political convenience that the Greens will offer you an unlimited debt cap. You could have come to us and explained yourselves. You could have put forward the rationale for the debt and the required lifting of the debt ceiling, but you have absolutely failed to do so. It is an absolutely extraordinary feat, to my mind—the political hoops that you are jumping through in that context. The budget reply speech of the former opposition leader, our Prime Minister, coined the phrase 'budget emergency', despite endorsing Labor's revenue and spending measures. Ms Bishop sang from the same 'emergency' song sheet, albeit she was confused about net and gross debt. We have had Senator Cormann in here with his cries of 'budget emergencies', nor did Mr Hockey seem to get off message when he said, 'Well, we didn't say the economy is in crisis.'

Confusingly, the coalition still claimed a budget emergency, but there has been no budget emergency. Where are those claims of 'budget emergency' now? When does a debt emergency end? Apparently—and this was editorialised in The Age some time ago—it is the moment when those raising the alarm win government. So what we have here is the move by Treasurer Hockey to raise the debt ceiling by two-thirds, from $300 billion to $500 billion, and now to set an unlimited ceiling. It is, I think—and as was editorialised—an implicit admission that the debt position this nation is in, established by the Labor Party in government, is responsible. We have brought forward a debt limit to this place with good reason: so that we can explain and rationalise to the parliament what sustainable debt looks like. We governed through some pretty extraordinary times when it came to things like the global financial crisis, and that meant that we needed to stimulate the economy and take those kinds of steps. Yes, they have an impact on our debt threshold—how much debt this nation has. That debt and that stimulus have to come before this place to be rationalised and debated, just as we did in government. I would ask you to responsibly do the same.

I started my remarks briefly this morning with a line from a Modest Mouse song, Missed the Boat. Other lines from the song are:

We made ourselves a pillar,

We just used it as a crutch.

I put to you, Senator Sinodinos, that your debate about debt and debt emergencies is just that. You have to get out from behind the politically convenient rhetoric about budget emergencies and stop using the debate about debt and deficit as a political crutch. I ask you to get out from underneath that. Modest Mouse says:

Well, nothing ever went

Quite exactly as we planned.

Our ideas held no water

But we used them like a dam.