Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

As a starting point I say to the member for Lindsay and all members in this place: we have to fix the budget mess we inherited from Labor. If we allow the budget to continue on the path that Labor laid down, in 10 years time every single Australian would have $25,000 of government debt against their name. Every child born in 10 years time would have $25,000 of debt at the moment of birth as a result of what Labor has done. Six years of Labor was like a wrecking ball through the Australian economy.

We are determined to deliver growth and jobs. For the people of western Sydney, where the member for Lindsay resides and works, the fact is we are committing nearly $3 billion for new road infrastructure and we are getting on with the job of building the Badgerys Creek airport after years of procrastination.

In addition to that, we promised we would get rid of the carbon tax. We got rid of that carbon tax. We said we would get rid of the mining tax for all Australians. We got rid of the mining tax. We said we would start the process of rolling out the biggest infrastructure program in Australian history and we are doing that. We said we were going to start to fix the budget and we are getting on with that.

But of course there are obstacles. Today being Thursday, it is book club Thursday.

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