Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In 2007 when the Labor Party came to office they inherited the best set of books that any incoming government has ever inherited in Australia's history. That is a fact. When the Labor Party left office and the coalition came to office in 2013, we inherited the worst set of books for an incoming government in Australia's history. That is the legacy and the fundamental difference that we are dealing with here.

We had a coalition government that delivered surpluses, that delivered tax reform, that left money in the bank and that paid off all the debt—and in six short years the Labor Party managed to undo all of that good work and in fact make it far worse than even when the coalition came to government in 1996. That is what we are dealing with in this budget. That is the legacy that we are seeking to address. The vandals on the other side in the Labor Party, who were so reckless with our finances, do not see the fact that they created the problem in the last six years and now, as we seek to fix the mess that they left us and the legacy that they left the Australian people, they are doing everything that they can to prevent us fixing the mess. They are doing everything they possibly can to stop us.

The fundamental debate that we are having between the government and opposition at the moment is: 'Do you believe in fiscal responsibility? Do you believe in getting the books under control and getting the budget under control for the sake of future generations?' That is the question that is before the Australian parliament at the moment as we debate all of these various measures: 'Do you believe in that or do you believe that endless deficits are okay?' The evidence from Europe is that when you allow endless deficits to happen—it does not happen immediately but when you allow them year after year after year—something has to give. The medicine that we have seen in Europe is something that we do not want to go anywhere near. That is what we need to avoid.

Senator Bilyk started by talking about buyer's remorse and the like. There is an interesting thing about some of the polling that we have seen in today's Newspoll. As the coalition deals with a tough budget that is, of course, difficult—and there are some people who are concerned with us. But notwithstanding the tough budget and the difficult changes that the coalition is seeking to make, the Labor Party are stranded—it appears, from today's Newspoll—exactly where they were at the last election when they had one of the biggest losses in their history. Their primary vote remains almost identical to where it was at that time.

Senator Dastyari interjecting—

Senator Dastyari seems happy with a 34 per cent primary. The fact is that the Labor Party have not learnt that one of the main reasons they were tossed out of office was that they were economic vandals.

Senator Dastyari interjecting—

You were not there but your party were economic vandals, Senator Dastyari—and that is what you have left us.