Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

In case people had not noticed, I am not in Sydney. I was not part of that discussion, so I am not aware of what my colleagues may or may not have said to the Chancellor of Germany when she undertook that tour. But I trust that, if a discussion did take place about policy, they may have reminded the Chancellor of Germany—a great lady, if I might say, and a great stateswoman who is doing wonderful things for the world, especially in Europe—they may have taken time out to explain to the Chancellor the sorts of policies that Senator Carr as minister presided over in the research and development area in the very first budget that he was responsible for.

You can do a compare and contrast. This government have the restrained financial circumstances that we inherited. Keep in mind that Labor's first budget was when there was a stack of money in the bank and we were running huge surpluses. Labor and minister Kim Carr deliberately cut funding for research and development—deliberately cut it. Compare that with what we face, where we have to borrow $1,000 million every month just to pay the interest component on existing loans—clearly and utterly unsustainable. Leaving a legacy of deficit and debt for the next generation is not something that we as a coalition want to preside over. Labor does. It does so regularly. But we are always given the task of cleaning up the mess that Labor leaves, and we are going about this task. What that means, regrettably, is that certain things that you might fund otherwise are no longer capable of being funded because of this legacy of debt and deficit occasioned by pink batts, school halls and other measures. (Time expired)