Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In respect of this particular matter that we are debating in the chamber this morning, we have to look back on the history of when we were in government and how we managed the economy, how we managed incentives to ensure people were employed and how we ensured that contractors and employers were in a position so that the economy never slipped into a void or into jeopardy. It certainly speaks volumes of the way we handled and managed the economy and debt in the past. We held a AAA rating, which should never be forgotten. In many circumstances, the now government tend to neglect that position, the fact that we put this country in good stead. Certainly, out of the eight leading countries in the world, we demonstrated our competence as a government when we were in power in that we did not allow our citizens to slip into a severe circumstance, as citizens of other countries throughout the globe did during the global financial crisis. As you would know, Chairman, when we sat on the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade many ambassadors came along and appraised us about the manner in which we handled the global financial crisis when we were in government and also managed the debt in those circumstances. And we hear it quite often.

We know for a fact that the Liberal Party campaigned against debt before the election and now it is asking the parliament to increase the debt limit to half a trillion dollars. It is a substantial increase to lift the debt ceiling to that degree. We need to see some examples of why there is a need to do that. I note the Treasurer and the government at this point are refusing to demonstrate why there is a need to lift the debt ceiling to half a trillion dollars, without demonstrating some form of example by releasing MYEFO. That certainly would be an opportunity for us as the opposition, and no doubt the crossbenches, to consider a need to do that. But, at this point, if you treat this parliament with contempt, if you treat the citizens of Australia with contempt with regard to not demonstrating a need to do that, then we will have some difficulties in agreeing to this arrangement. The Treasurer must release these updated budget estimates and the impact of this budget blow-out—we have no doubt that there are issues behind what they are proposing—before we can really seriously expect the parliament to consider the debt limit legislation.

Reflecting back on the way we managed the global financial crisis, we were transparent: we went out there and explained to the then opposition and the public the reasons why we were spending this sort of money and the reasons why we had to stimulate the economy and ensure that people were not unemployed to a substantial degree. Certainly, when you look at what happened around the globe, you will see that, in many cases—for example, in the US—millions and millions of people lost their employment and their homes. We did not face those dire straits here. We managed the debt, we managed the global financial crisis and we stimulated the economy, ensuring that we were not in a position where people were unemployed and losing their homes. I certainly know from my experience going around to many school openings that that was one example of how we spent the money; there are many examples of how we spent the money. Contractors, builders and architects explained to me that if they had not had that injection of that sort of money they would have had to put off literally thousands of workers across the board. In hindsight, we did the right thing. We are asking the government now to demonstrate why there is a need to lift the debt ceiling. Be transparent and be upfront, and tell us why you need to lift the debt ceiling to half a trillion dollars.