Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

The MPI before parliament today is one of very great importance—our worsening debt position and rising government debt. If anyone needed any further convincing that they should despair of this Labor government, they would have had their views totally reinforced by the response we have just heard from the minister. This is a matter of public importance about Australia's worsening debt position. In spite of a $145 billion black hole, in spite of $174 billion worth of debt racked up by this government, in spite of repeated demands for increases in their credit card borrowing limit, this government says we do not have a debt problem. Their attitude is: 'This is nothing to worry about. It is only a $145 billion black hole. It is only $174 billion worth of deficits. We do not have a problem.'

The minister just said that it is only a pretend debt. You go and tell your bank manager that your house mortgage is only a pretend debt—you don't have to pay it back; it doesn't matter. This is the irresponsible approach this government are taking towards debt. Their response to being racked with debt is to spend, spend, spend. Their attitude is: 'Spend your way out of debt. Spend your way out of the country's troubles. The credit limit doesn't matter—raise it again. Keep on spending.'

Labor have no appreciation of the crisis. They are leaving this country with a level of debt which just grows and grows. They have learned no lessons from the Hawke-Keating government, which left behind $96 billion worth of debt, debt which took a decade to repay. This government is already way beyond that—$145 billion worth of debt—and they have no plan to repay it. The minister's attitude is: 'It does not matter; it is only pretend. Who cares about the debt? Just keep on spending.'

Today and on previous days Labor have criticised the Queensland government, the New South Wales government and the Victorian government for having to cut expenditure. This is a further reflection of the way Labor believe debt should be dealt with. The Queensland LNP government does not want to cut expenditure. They would like to keep going on spending—as all of us would like to keep on spending. They are not doing this because they want to do it; they are doing it because they have to do it.

Labor has spent the state into a $70 billion deficit, rising much higher as time goes by. The state has lost its credit rating under Labor.

Queenslanders are paying hundreds of millions of dollars more than they should because of the higher interest rates caused by Labor spending irresponsibly—and, again, it had no plan to ever pay that money back. Now the South Australian Labor government has had its credit rating downgraded. What is Labor's response? Keep on spending—spend your way out of debt. This is the kind of illogical economic policy that has given that state so much trouble over the years.

Every Labor government leaves behind a legacy of debt. It is quite clear from the minister's recent comment that they do not care. The mantra of the government has been heroic announcements. They revel in rhetoric and big-vision type announcements full of carefully crafted speeches, but with no plan ever to pay for them. They are big on overcooked promises but they are hopeless on delivery. The cost blow-outs, along with commodity prices in freefall, mean that any hope Labor ever had of achieving its $1.5 billion surplus is long gone. The budget was never honest. There was never any likelihood that it would return to surplus. The Gillard and Rudd governments have never delivered a budget surplus. This is not the first time they have promised one—they promised it in their very first budget. After Kevin Rudd had promised the Australian people that he was a fiscal conservative, Labor delivered their first budget, promising a $22 billion surplus. We all know that that turned into a $27 billion debt. The $70 billion that was in the bank and that they inherited has now gone and they are way into the red. Our national debt is at a record—a staggering $145 billion.

But they have not stopped the promises. They are still out there with these big announcements that are simply not funded. That is what has delivered a $120 billion black hole, on top of the existing debt that Australians are going to have to fund. There is a whole array of announcements. There is to be $10 billion a year for the National Disability Insurance Scheme—a project that everyone would like to see put in place, but Labor have not provided the money. They have even boasted that they have delivered the National Disability Insurance Scheme, but it is unfunded. There is $4 billion for a new dental health package. They are not telling the Australian people, who are despairingly starting to wake up to this, that as of last week they have actually cancelled the previous government's billion-dollar dental scheme.

No-one can now get any government funded dental treatment, because the government have cancelled the previous government's billion-dollar scheme. The new program does not start until 2014—after this financial year, when they are trying to deliver some kind of fake budget surplus. It is a long wait to get your tooth filled, but that is where the government are going with their overblown rhetoric.

There is $6.5 billion a year on the Gonski education program not funded. There is $3.7 billion for aged care, but there has been no new money for a long time and even when the program is fully implemented most of it will come from older Australians themselves—it is not a government program. There will be $2.2 billion for mental health, but they are actually cutting expenditure for mental health.

They are up to their old tricks. We have seen these grand plan announcements before—big promises but they are not delivered on. There was GroceryWatch; Fuelwatch—it did not even get off the ground; cash for clunkers, abolished before it started; the green loans scheme, which has left so many people out of pocket; $2.4 billion for the pink batts that went up in smoke, with 250,000 botched installations and a thousand electrified roofs; and then there was the Building the Education Revolution, which delivered overpriced school halls, and the computers that were supposed to go to every child between years nine and 12, costing $900 million. It cost $2.3 billion and ran years late. Labor is out there just cynically trying to buy votes. They are talking up the rhetoric, but everyone needs to remember that the money is not there to pay for any of these programs.

Labor's $120 billion black hole is not just on paper—it has a direct effect on families. It is not pretend money, as the minister suggested. There will be an ongoing cost for Australian households and Australian businesses. As a result of this great black hole, as a result of this debt, there will be less money to be spent on health, education, roads, defence and all the important things that governments must do, because money will first have to be paid as interest to the bankers. They are the people who are going to demand interest on this debt, the people who will decide whether even the federal government can maintain its credit rating if it keeps on spending, spending, spending with no plan whatsoever to pay the debt back. Is it any wonder that countries around the world are observing Australia and wondering whether this is a place they should invest in—we have a government that cannot be trusted, that does not understand economics, that does not care about debt.

The Treasurer has been asked over recent days about what he proposes to do about this debt and what new taxes are going to be introduced. There are 26 new ones already and another 20 at least are being talked about, including the horrors of death duties, which the Treasurer was not willing to rule out yesterday. The reality is that Labor continues to deliver record deficits, record expenditure and record incompetence. Australians are paying for this at the rate of $20 million a day in interest and they will keep paying for it for generations. (Time expired)

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