Wyatt Roy (Longman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Which is a few hundred per cent more than what is on your side. But it is a really interesting thing, because this bill is a serious question about what the modern Labor party stands for. We have a situation—and let's remove the partisan politics from this discussion—that we have to face as a country, not as political parties, not as politicians, but as a country. We have inherited from the former government hundreds of billions of dollars worth of debt. We have an economy that is reliant very much on the mining boom, and inevitably that will come off. And we have an enormous demographic challenge facing our nation. We can stick our heads in the sand and pretend that that does not exist or we can prepare for the future. The reality is this: today there are 7½ people working for every person who is not working. By 2050, when my generation is heading towards retirement, it will be 2½. We have these really pathetic political discussions in this chamber where we go across from one side to the other about how we can score these cheap political points, but the reality facing our country at the moment is this: if we cannot manage our finances as a nation, if we cannot set up our country so that, one, our government lives within its means and, two, the private sector is as productive as possible, as innovative as possible and as outward-looking as possible so that we have as many Australians in the best possible jobs and earning the highest real wages and ultimately paying more tax, we are going to say to the next generation of Australians, 'We're sorry. We weren't up to the task. We weren't up to the challenge and, collectively, we'll hand over to the next generation of Australians a country with less opportunity than we have here today.'

I think it is up to us as political parties, as politicians and as a parliament to rise to that challenge and say that it is not good enough to hand over to the next generation of Australians a country with less opportunity. The Productivity Commission says that if we do nothing, which is essentially what the modern Labor Party stands for, then just to meet the demographic challenge—and it is not a political party saying this; it is the Productivity Commission—we would have to raise taxes by 21 per cent. That is before we add funding to schools or roads or hospitals or important schemes like the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

If we cannot act and have a government that lives within its means, a government that can provide for the future of everyday Australians, then we are going to say that this is all too hard, that we are going to have a cheap political win today and our kids and grandkids—my generation—are going to pay 21 per cent more tax than we currently do. I do not think there is anything fair or equitable in that. We are going to say to them that because we could not manage our own finances, because we could not live within our means, the next generation of Australians are not going to have as much money to spend on roads, on schools, on hospitals and we are not going to have the ability to provide the opportunity to them that is provided to our current generation.

This is a reality that we all know in this place. The Labor Party might sometimes like to pretend that these challenges are not there, or make cheap political arguments wherein they say: 'Look, it's all okay; it's fine. Nothing to see here. We'll just keep handing out other people's money for as long as we can.' But this reality exists for us as a country, and if the Labor Party and the Liberal Party cannot come to terms with that, if we cannot live within our means, and if the people in the other place, in the Senate, cannot come to terms with that, then that is what we are going to do. We have to be prepared enough to say that we are just going to hand over a country where you pay more tax and have less opportunity than we do. I do not think that is a fair or equitable thing for us to do as a nation.

This bill shows the remarkable turnaround of the modern Labor Party, from the Labor Party of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, who did amazing things for our country—opened up our economy, increased the prosperity of our nation. What does the modern Labor Party stand for? I cannot understand what Bob Hawke and Paul Keating would see, looking at the modern Labor Party. The bill we have before us contains saving measures that the Labor Party in government proposed—saving measures not from this side of the chamber but from the Labor Party when they were in government and that now, under new leadership, they are trying to deliver as a new direction. It is simply the most populist political party our country has seen in decades. This is no longer the Labor Party of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. This is just a populist movement seeking power for power's sake. And now, in opposition, they are opposing these saving measures.

We all know in this place that we have to have a government that lives within its means. The Labor Party was prepared in government to put some savings—not enough savings, but some savings—on the table so that the next generation did not inherit an enormous amount of debt, so that the next generation did not pay much higher taxes, and they proposed some savings. And of course now in opposition they have this crazy political ideology that will just keep rattling the money tree, and money will just keep falling out and they will promise absolutely everything to everybody. Surely that is the easiest political thing for somebody to do if all they want to do is seek power for power's sake. If all we wanted to do in this place was to be politicians who came here and sat on this green leather and never actually had to do anything good for the country, we would just promise more money for everybody for everything. But the reality is that the next generation of Australians will pay for it. The reality of us seeking our own political survival today is that the next generation of Australians will have less opportunity. Seeing the Labor Party opposing their own savings in this bill, I think the next generation of Australians should be very disappointed in the level of political discussion we have as a nation. They should be disappointed in the lack of credibility of the modern Labor Party, and they should be disappointed by a political class that thinks it is okay to just hand the problem over to the next generation.

While we are frustrated, while we are disappointed, I am eternally optimistic that we can rise to the challenge in this place and we can hand over to the next generation of Australians a country that has more opportunity, not less; a country where we pay lower taxes than we pay today, not higher taxes; and a country that reaches its potential, that takes hold of the opportunities of this century. But if the modern Labor Party cannot even bring itself to support a bill like this—their own savings—there is very little hope. So, my plea to the members of the Labor Party, those members opposite, is: support this bill, support your own savings and show the next generation of Australians that you are not just going to kick the can down the road and make them pick up the bill. For that reason, I commend these bills to the House.

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