Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

We owe it to our children and grandchildren to repair the budget as soon as possible, because right now the Labor Party and the Greens are forcing us to keep borrowing from our children and grandchildren in order to fund our lifestyle today. The longer we keep borrowing from our children and grandchildren, and the longer we add to the deficit and to the debt and increasing to debt interest payments, the more we force our children and grandchildren to accept either a lower living standard or higher taxes. The Labor Party wants us to continue to put more debt on the national credit card to get our children and grandchildren to pay it back. Labor had an opportunity today. We were prepared to facilitate efficient passage just on those savings measures that Labor tells us they agree with. Labor gives us a list of savings measures they say they agree with and that they will vote in favour of, but just not today. They were going to do it, but just not today, because they just want to keep the debt going and they want to keep the deficit going—(Time expired)