Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In 20 years of working in the private sector before coming into parliament, one of the things I learned very early on is that an effective service has to be a sustainable one. Those opposite promised the Australian people a lot. But the question we have all got to ask ourselves is, 'Is any of it sustainable?' I have learnt over the last little while that they have got a couple of tricks. Trick No. 1 is to make sure you promise lots out beyond the four-year estimates, because no-one makes you accountable for that. Trick No. 2 is to put in place taxes that do not generate any revenue, because you can promise the future without ever actually delivering it.

I was interested in particular as to how sustainable their healthcare policies were. I went to the Parliamentary Budget Office, who looked back at the Labor years and the rate of growth of spending under the Labor. I discovered that public hospital spending growth was at six per cent a year. Bear in mind that GDP is significantly lower than that. When we go to the MBS, it is nine per cent a year. The PBS—which was their best performer—was at about GDP growth, which is five per cent a year. The total is much faster than GDP. A simple mathematical fact is that when you spend at a rate faster than GDP, then your debt and deficit grows and it is no longer sustainable.

I asked myself, 'What is it about the Labor Party that means that they have this kind of spending growth?' Bear the comparison in mind that our spending growth is about one per cent a year. I thought I would turn to the ANAO, because it is a pretty trusted and independent auditor of government spending. I looked through their reports and I discovered some crackers. The first was on GP super clinics. It turns out that the Labor Party promised 75 GP super clinics over two rounds.

See this speech in context