Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will take Senator Farrell's interjection. I agree that the level of debt is probably not the most massively important factor in this debate. The most important factor in this debate is the rate by which the debt is increasing over the forward estimates. The rate of increase projected by the budget handed down by the previous government suggested that the rate of increase in our debt was going to be higher than any other country in the OECD. I put on the record that it is actually the rate of increase in this debt that was totally unsustainable.

I draw the chamber's attention to the situation in Greece. In 1985, Greece's debt to GDP ratio was 50 per cent. In Australia, many will tell us that the debt to GDP ratio of this country is only 13 per cent or 14 per cent but we fail to add to that the debt that is currently carried by our states, which takes it up to 25 per cent. Okay, we will agree that that may well be the case. But if we continue to increase our debt at a rate that is greater than we are able to service the debt then we all end up in a terrible place. I am sure those listening would understand that if you went to the bank and asked the bank if they would continually fund the interest-rate that you are required to pay on your loan, very shortly the bank would turn around and say, 'We are terribly sorry but we are not prepared to finance your interest. You have to at least finance that yourself. We may not expect you to keep paying the debt back but you need to at least pay back your interest.'

I put on the record that we need to compare apples with apples. It is the same with the misinformation that we have cut education and cut spending in health. The cold hard reality is that spending on health and spending on education will continue to increase over the forward estimates. Those opposite will complain and carry on and say that we are cutting spending but the simple fact is we are just not increasing spending at the same unsustainable rate that they were increasing spending.

I also noticed that the previous speaker talked about fairness. Do you know what is fair? What is really fair is our obligation as senators and as members of the House of Representatives to make sure that this country is in a sustainable, solid and strong state for our children and for their children. To keep increasing debt at an accelerated rate over the forward estimates is not, I believe, a fair way to be addressing our budget. To address the budget, everybody in Australia is asked to play their small part in trying to make sure that we bring our budget back into some sort of sensible space so that we can put our country on an economic trajectory that allows our children and their children to have a future. I think that is a very fair budget indeed. As I said, everybody is doing their bit and everybody is asked to do a little bit. Nobody is being asked to do a major amount but I do not think anybody has been left without being asked to do something. I would say to those opposite that we need to be honest about what this budget is about and about what is contained in it. And we need to tell the public the truth: it is a fair budget and it is a budget that every Australian should be proud of.