Chris Ketter (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to participate in this matter of public importance. This particular issue is one that does greatly interest me: this issue not only of debt but also the question of economic management.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Turnbull government, and Liberal governments for that matter, are the most prolific spenders of any government in history. You do not have to take my word for that. I encourage our colleagues in One Nation to take note of this. I have raised this previously: profligate spending is something which an IMF working group looked at in 2013. The IMF working group looked at a range of industrial economies—55 economies in all—and they looked across those major industrial economies to find which were the periods of government which had the most wasteful government spending. I suppose it is to the chagrin of the coalition that, in fact, the IMF working group found that it was in two periods of the Howard government that profligate or wasteful spending occurred. This is an uncomfortable fact for the senators on the other side of the chamber, but this is a finding of a respected working group of the IMF.

The first period was 2003, at the height of the mining boom. Senators opposite always talk about the level of debt at the time that Labor took office, but it also needs to be said that in the time of the Howard government, particularly in the early part of this century, the mining boom was leading to rivers of gold flowing into government coffers. There was not a great deal of expert management required to deliver surpluses in those periods of time. The coalition government at that time found ways to conduct wasteful spending. As I said, 2003 was the first of the two periods of wasteful spending. Then the 2005 to 2007 period was also identified as a period of wasteful spending, at the end of the Howard government.

This government has gone backwards in its attempts to manage the budget, with debt accumulating at a 35 per cent faster pace than when Labor were in power. Even more importantly, the Turnbull government is failing in job creation and lowering the unemployment rate, which remains high. Figures released last week revealed that there are only seven days to go until the Turnbull government crashes through half a trillion dollars in gross debt for the first time in Australia's history. The Australian Office of Financial Management's figures show that gross debt has hit $499.2 billion, and two expected debt issuances this week, worth a combined $950 million, will see it eclipse the $500 billion on Friday.

Mr Turnbull, Mr Morrison and Senator Cormann like to blame everybody else but themselves for this mess, but this milestone exposes the depths of their failure. Their $65 billion tax cut for the top end of town is just one example of why the Prime Minister and his colleagues are part of the problem, not part of the solution, when it comes to skyrocketing debt. The Treasurer was forced to raise the nation's debt cap from $500 billion to an unprecedented $600 billion last month, a threshold that will not even cover the $606 billion in gross debt expected by the end of the forward estimates or the $725 billion projected by 2027-28, and with no peak in sight. The Turnbull government's budget also projects net debt to hit record levels over the next three years and the deficit to be 10 times bigger in the coming year than was predicted in Mr Hockey's first budget in 2014.

Higher interest payments on record debt is the price Australians are paying for four years of Liberal division, dysfunction, chaos and incompetence. But, as we know, or as the Treasurer likes to tell everyone: 'There is good debt and there is bad debt.' Fake spending on infrastructure is 'good'; fully funding our schools is 'bad'. At least, that is how the members of this incompetent government view spending. The fact is that, for all their bravado, this budget and this exuberant amount of debt does not produce a dollar of new investment for public transport until well after the next federal election.

The Prime Minister's admission came today after the Queensland government was forced to go it alone in funding the Cross River Rail project in Brisbane in its 2017 budget, because the Prime Minister—to his eternal shame, in my view—has refused to support the project. Mr Turnbull likes taking selfies on trains, trams and buses, but he refuses to invest in trains, trams or buses, despite repeated warnings that traffic congestion is acting as a handbrake on the nation's economic development. Cross River Rail is urgently needed to provide a second rail crossing of the Brisbane River in the city's CBD, because the existing Merivale Bridge is reaching full capacity. Continued delay in commencing the project will inhibit economic growth in Brisbane and right across South-East Queensland.

In last month's budget, Mr Turnbull created a $10 billion National Rail Fund, which he says could be used to invest in Cross River Rail, as well as other public transport projects, like the Melbourne Metro and the AdeLINK light rail project. In question time today, I understand that Labor's Anthony Albanese asked:

Is the Prime Minister aware that under the so-called National Rail Program not a single dollar is available in this entire term of parliament? There is nothing this year, nothing next year and nothing the year after that. Isn't the National Rail Program in fact the new NAIF—the 'No Actual Infrastructure Fund'?

That was the question, and I tend to agree. Cross River Rail was approved by Infrastructure Australia in 2012 and was ready to commence in 2013, under a deal between the former Labor government and the former coalition Queensland government. But it was cancelled by the incoming federal coalition government, which has subsequently not provided a single dollar of new investment in public transport.

Without significant investment in infrastructure, this chaotic government is leading us down to the point of no return. We need a government that is willing to take the risks and invest in the public good, not a government that tries to cut corners. Just look at the state of the NBN. This is a self-proclaimed 'Innovation Prime Minister', and Mr Abbott refers to him as 'the man who invented the internet'. But listen to this: Mr Turnbull has now purchased 15,051 kilometres of copper for his NBN rollout to date. That is 15 million metres of copper, enough to wrap around Australia. This copper splurge represents a growth rate of 736 per cent from Mr Turnbull's 1,800 kilometre tally in October 2015. You cannot make this stuff up. This feat was finally revealed by NBN Co in response to a question from Senator Urquhart that was already 18 days overdue. Mr Turnbull's use of taxpayer funds on last century's copper is yet another indictment of his failed, second-rate NBN. Mr Turnbull's ongoing broadband stuff-ups, with his second-rate copper NBN, rates a mention in the budget papers, including confirmation of his backflip on limiting public funding of the NBN to $29.5 billion. The budget papers also confirm funding for sites identified in the 2016 election campaign for the Mobile Black Spot Program. The government bungled the first funding round and was comprehensively criticised by the audit office. It found that one in four new towers failed to provide any new or extended coverage.

With the handing down of the 2017-18 budget, this government has once again failed to provide a coherent vision for the future of Australia and has done nothing to address growing debt. This is putting our AAA credit rating at risk and damaging the future prosperity of all Australians. When I think about the achievements of the Turnbull government, it is pretty dim. So I just want you to listen to my final summary at the end of this MPI: Under the Turnbull government we have: the slowest GDP growth since that GFC, record government debt, company profits surging, real wages falling, homeownership at 60-year lows and inequality at a 75-year high. If you think the Liberals are better economic managers, you really need to think again.