David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last night, we saw the final episode of Struggle Street. Let me tell you about someone I know on struggle street. He earns $40,000 a year. He finds it tough to live on this income and ends up spending $43,000 a year. This adds to his debts. He is now in debt to the tune of $28,000, and his interest bill is in the thousands. One night he comes home from work, opens his mail, and looks over a pile of bills and account statements. It is depressing reading, and he pushes the pile away. To take his mind off his worries, he hops online and ends up booking a weekend getaway which costs a couple of hundred bucks. Looking at this scene from afar, as if we are watching a documentary, most of us can see that this guy has a problem. Anyone who cannot see that needs their head read. Anyone who thinks the solution is simply for the guy to ask his boss for a pay rise needs their head read. We can empathise with him all we like, but he needs to cancel his weekend getaway, rein in all of his spending and start paying off his debts. He needs to start living within his means before the credit runs out.

This guy is called Joe. He is the federal Treasurer, and if you add seven zeros to each of the numbers I mentioned you have got the federal budget for the coming year. His revenue will be around $400 billion, his spending around $430 billion, and despite this parlous imbalance he added a couple of billion dollars in new spending on Tuesday night. The Treasurer's net debt next year will be around $285 billion and his interest bill will be $12 billion. Anyone who does not think this is a problem needs their head read, and they need their head read if they think that the Treasurer should just ask his boss, the taxpayers of Australia, for more money. The taxpayers of Australia are already paying the government more than it is worth, and they should not pay any more. The Treasurer should not have announced additional billions of spending on Tuesday night. He needs to rein in government spending, start paying off his debts and start living within his means.