Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

They said, 'As businesspeople, we could not afford to invest; we could not have the confidence to invest.' They were giving me the examples. They said the chaos was things like banning live exports overnight after a TV program. The chaos was: 'Let's call an election nine months out. That's a good idea.' That was a chaotic decision. What that meant—

Opposition members interjecting—

You would not understand this, but I will try and explain it to you. When an election is called, businesses stop investing, because consumers get nervous. Consumers think there is uncertainty. That was another example that they gave me. Again, if we are going to mention the word 'chaos', it was really interesting that that was the theme that I was hearing last night. Let us look at the budget. The budget has done a couple of things. Actually, let us stay with chaos and go off the budget for one second. One of the ladies last night said: 'What about the chaotic boat policy they had?' Anyway, we will not go there!

One of the big themes of last year's budget was infrastructure. Let us talk about infrastructure. I will also compliment the Baird government, the New South Wales coalition government, because with the infrastructure program that they are running out in the state electorates, some in my electorate, there is going to be a massive infrastructure spend on hospitals, bridges, rail, trails; there is all sorts of infrastructure spending happening. One of the major infrastructure projects that we are running out—and I am sure, Mr Deputy Speaker Kelly, you are very pleased about it—is the duplication of the Pacific Highway. The other side wanted to cut spending on that. They wanted to lower the Commonwealth government's spend from 80 per cent to 50 per cent. Well, that is nice! That was a great idea! We said we would maintain the spending at 80 per cent—and we will.

Let us stay on the budget. Spending on health, spending on education and spending on welfare are all increasing. There is an interesting little analogy with the budget too, with the increases in all these areas. The people last night were businesspeople who have employed people, people who actually know how the commerce world works. Wouldn't it be nice to have some of those over on that side! As a citizen, not as a politician, I would love to look over at that side and see some over there! Is there anyone with a commercial brain? Is there a Hawke there? Is there a Keating there? God, no. We are in trouble, because there is no-one. There is no economic literacy that comes out from that side.

The other thing the people last night said was: 'Thank you for stopping the chaos, and thank you for the free trade agreements.' Let us look at chaos. Do you know where there is chaos? You love talking about sustainability. Let us talk about sustainability. We could talk about environmental sustainability. That is a good idea. I believe in that as well. But nothing of economic sustainability is ever breathed from that side. It is populism, it is tax, it is spend—and it is populism. It is populism. Do you know what you get from that? You get chaos. You get situations like in Greece or in South America. That is chaos: when you owe money to people and they say, We want it back,' that is when you get chaos.

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