Cory Bernardi (SA, Australian Conservatives) Share this | Hansard source

In rising to support the Social Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2017, Australia Conservatives feel it is necessary to point out that successive Australian governments have been living beyond their means. There is a time when we have to arrest that dramatic erosion of fiscal responsibility. That can only be addressed by making savings in government expenditure. There are those, and we heard one of them on the other side in Senator Siewert just then, who say, 'That's not necessary. This is unfortunate. It's going to have detrimental impacts on some people who can least afford it.' But the idea, the very concept, that somehow we can get by without addressing the spending problems of successive governments and pretend we do not have a moral obligation to our children and successive generations to deliver them a financially responsible balance sheet is an appropriation of our responsibilities in this place.

There is no doubt at all that the last 10 years have done an enormous disservice to our children. There is now close to $500 billion worth of net national debt, when in 2007, at the ascension of the Rudd spendthrift government, there was zero net national debt. Five hundred billion dollars has been racked up because governments would not address spending commitments over the last decade or so. That is $90,000 for every child in this country today, and yet the people on the other side of the chamber refuse to accept any responsibility for it. They do not want to address it. Their answer is to tax people. Well, my response to that is that people are taxed enough already in this country.

We have high rates of taxation. But we have even higher rates of spending, because people are not mindful of the obligations we have to the next generation. This bill, whilst it can be criticised as not going far enough or targeting the wrong people, takes a very modest step in the direction of returning our current account and our balance sheet by repaying some debt and having government live within its means. This has modest savings of $2.4 billion over the forward estimates. Part of that comes from the freezing of indexation in regard to family tax benefits.

I support the freezing of indexation, including the freezing of indexation when it comes to politicians' pay, which, most notably, only half a dozen of us supported in this place yesterday. The rest said, 'We don't want to freeze indexation of our pay; we just want the dollars to keep rolling in.' I find that a tad hypocritical, that we can say we want to stop families from getting indexation for their family tax benefits, but we don't want to stop politicians from having their pay frozen until the budget is returned to surplus. There is a huge disconnect between the rhetoric that happens in this place and what is delivered outside of the beltway.

Who can forget the world's greatest Treasurer? No, it was not Paul Keating; it was apparently Wayne Swan. Wayne Swan, in his legendary comments in 2010, after he apparently fixed the budget with a temporary deficit, said:

Every dollar of new policy in this Budget has been offset across the forward estimates, as we meet the strict confines of our responsible fiscal strategy.

A strategy that will see the budget return to surplus in three years' time, three years ahead of schedule, and ahead of every major advanced economy.

That was in 2010. Do you know what he said in 2008? He said there would be a $21 billion surplus in 2009. In 2010 he said it was going to be three years down the track. In 2011 he said:

We will be back in the black in 2012-13, on time, as promised.

Guess what? That did not happen. In 2012 he said:

This budget delivers a surplus this coming year, on time, as promised, and surpluses each year after that, strengthening over time.

That is why no-one believes what politicians say any more, because they do not tell the truth.