Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Finance, Senator Cormann. Can the minister explain to the Senate the government's progress in implementing the federal budget?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Edwards for that question. In September last year the government inherited a deteriorating budget position from a Treasurer, Mr Swan, and from a Minister of Finance, Senator Wong, who had presided over a $107 billion deterioration in the budget bottom line in the three short years that she was the minister. We inherited a situation where there was $123 billion in projected deficits, where government debt was heading for $667 billion within a decade and growing and where we now have to pay $1 billion a month just on interest to service Labor's debt. Every one of the 10 million taxpayers across Australia has to spend $100 every month just on the interest to service Labor's debt. Our plan to repair the budget is in the May budget that we delivered a few months ago. I am pleased to report that we are making good progress, despite the best efforts of the Labor Party and the Greens. But we have some budget measures in front of us here in the Senate—social services related budget measures—where the Labor Party has said to us, 'We agree with those savings' and the Greens have said, 'We agree with this particular saving.' There are some savings Labor disagrees with; there are some savings the Greens disagree with. Instead of facilitating the efficient passage of all those things we agree with, Labor comes in and says, 'Oh, no, we have to continue to play procedural games. We're not in a hurry here to fix the budget mess we left behind. We're not in a hurry to get the things through where there is actual agreement. We want to force you to re-introduce all of those things, even though it will be exactly in the same form next time when we come around.'

We will be here a month later and we will have lost some more time. For what purpose? For no purpose whatsoever. So are going to be wasting more money for taxpayers; we are going to be slower in repairing the budget, because Labor—(Time expired)

Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Will the minister explain to the Senate why it is so important to continue with the repair of the budget?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We owe it to our children and grandchildren to repair the budget as soon as possible, because right now the Labor Party and the Greens are forcing us to keep borrowing from our children and grandchildren in order to fund our lifestyle today. The longer we keep borrowing from our children and grandchildren, and the longer we add to the deficit and to the debt and increasing to debt interest payments, the more we force our children and grandchildren to accept either a lower living standard or higher taxes. The Labor Party wants us to continue to put more debt on the national credit card to get our children and grandchildren to pay it back. Labor had an opportunity today. We were prepared to facilitate efficient passage just on those savings measures that Labor tells us they agree with. Labor gives us a list of savings measures they say they agree with and that they will vote in favour of, but just not today. They were going to do it, but just not today, because they just want to keep the debt going and they want to keep the deficit going—(Time expired)

Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Can the minister advise the Senate of the drawbacks of any alternative policy approaches to the budget repair?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Labor Party does not have a policy on how to repair the budget mess they left behind. The Labor Party just wants to continue to add to the deficit; they want to continue to add to the debt. They want to continue to put our hands into our children's pockets and our grandchildren's pockets so that they have to pay back the Labor-Green debt with interest. One day between now and the election, it will dawn on Mr Shorten that if he wants to have a credible policy in the lead up to the next election, he will have to explain whether he still believes that we should get back to surplus. If he does not like our plan, how will he get back into surplus? Does he want to push up taxes? Does he want to bring back the carbon tax and the mining tax and all his other Labor taxes?

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Where does he want to cut spending? Where is the Labor Party going to cut spending? Or are you just going to continue to increase the Labor black hole? Are we going to have another $107 billion deterioration in the budget bottom line under Senator Wong—(Time expired)