Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Senator Wong. I refer the minister to her comments in a media release earlier this year about funding commitments when she said:

You’d hope that before they made billions of dollars worth of promises, they’d be able to explain how they were going to fund it.

Given the latest Labor Party spending spree, why has the Gillard Labor government ignored that clear advice from the minister for finance and steadfastly refused to explain how it is going to fund $120 billion worth of promises before making them?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think that is actually the same question that Senator Abetz asked me. There are also some factual assertions in the question with which I do not agree, but I will leave those for the moment. The core issue here is how political parties, parties of government, make sure they disclose to the Australian people in budget updates but most importantly before an election how they will cost their policies. Those of us on this side of the chamber have ensured that we have done that. We have ensured that our budget updates have complied with budget practice and we have ensured that election policy commitments comply with the Charter of Budget Honesty introduced by former Liberal Treasurer Peter Costello. Those opposite have manifestly failed to do so.

We know what play book those opposite are playing out of, and that is the play book that Premier Newman demonstrated to Queenslanders. Before the election you do not tell anybody anything. You set up a commission of audit and then all of sudden you say, 'I know I said to the public servants they have nothing to fear, but I'm now going to sack 14,000 of them and cut into front-line services for Queenslanders.' That is the play book that Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey and Senator Cormann want to engage in, which is why they do not want to come in here and tell any Australians what their plans really are.

Senator Cormann does not want to come in here and say how he will find $70 billion. He does not want to come in here and say which services he will cut. He does not want to come in here and say how many people he will sack. And he does not want to ensure that he actually releases policies which have been costed in accordance with the Charter of Budget Honesty.

We have a track record as a government of making structural saves, many of which you have opposed, like the private health insurance rebate. Do not come in here and lecture me about the structural integrity of the budget. You voted against the private health insurance rebate and everybody knew that was an important structural save for the future. (Time expired)

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I refer the minister to another of her recent media releases where she said:

$70 billion in cuts would be the equivalent of stopping Family Tax Benefit payments for three years or cutting the age pension for two years.

Are these the types of programs Labor plans to cut to fund its $120 billion budget black hole? Or will Labor just do what it always does and that is lazily jack up taxes and drive up Labor government debt even further?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think it is important in the context of that question to again remind the senator that we did not come up with the figure of $70 billion. Joe Hockey and Andrew Robb did. In fact, Mr Robb on national television—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! You need to refer to people in the other place by their correct title.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sorry—Mr Hockey and Mr Robb did. If you do not like it, maybe you should rock up to Shadow ERC and say, 'Oh, this $70 billion is a bit of a problem,' because it is your figure, but you refuse to tell Australians what you will do in order to find those cuts. You refuse to tell Australians what you want to do. You refuse to comply with any principles of sensible budget transparency or the Peter Costello Charter of Budget Honesty. You simply refuse to do that.

I am also asked about the pension. Which was the government that delivered a historic increase to the age pension? Was it the Howard government over 11 years? Or was it this government, a Labor government, that delivered the historic increase to the pension? Those are Labor priorities, Senator.

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Given the Australian people could not trust the Prime Minister's promise before the last election that there would be no carbon tax under a government she leads, why should people trust that this government would ever deliver on its $120 billion worth of unfunded promises? How can people across Australia trust this government when not even Senator Doug Cameron does?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am sure that the economic hardheads in the Liberal Party would be most pleased by Senator Cormann suggesting that Senator Cameron is the benchmark for Liberal Party fiscal transparency. Senator Cameron might not regard that as a promotion; he might regard that as a substantial demotion—I do not know. But it is interesting that he has suddenly become the benchmark that Senator Cormann refers to.

Senator Cormann interjecting—

The reality is that the benchmark has been previously set in the Charter of Budget Honesty. The people who are refusing to comply with that are those opposite.

Senator Cormann interjecting—

No amount of bluster, self-righteousness and continuous interjecting—which is what Senator Cormann continuous to do; we always know when we are getting to you, Senator Cormann, because you just do not stop—no amount of that kind of behaviour will detract attention from the fact that your economic figures simply have never stacked up.