David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a great opportunity to talk on the MPI when our colleagues opposite put up something about economic management. It is like shooting ducks. Unfortunately, members opposite seem to have a bad case of economic amnesia. They criticise us any time a difficult decision is made in this House. That is the job Australia gave us. We went to the 2013 election promising to get our debt under control. And as soon as we start doing that they go weak at the knees. They are not prepared to do anything apart from spend more money. It is really easy to spend money, particularly when it is somebody else's. Margaret Thatcher had it right: the trouble with socialism is that they spend everyone else's money and then, when the money runs out, the whole system collapses.

You have just got to look at what the net debt was for Australia in 2007. It was a negative debt. We had $29 billion in the positive, having inherited $96 billion in the red when the Howard government came to power in 1996. The debt trajectory that we inherited when we came into responsibility for the Treasury was trending at reaching $666 billion by 2023. That is 26½ per cent of the GDP in federal government debt. This is often compared to government debt in other countries, but a lot of those other countries do not have a similar system to ours. They might have a unicameral system and not necessarily have states. If you add Australian federal government debt to state and local government debt, we are up there at $710 billion.

When the winds are heading in the wrong direction in the world economy, you really have to have a government that has got its books in order. That is why it is so important. When the GFC came along, what kept us in place? We had a sound banking system and we had next to no debt. Admittedly, guaranteeing the stability of the banks was a good call. I supported that. But spending billions and billions of dollars—which is a permanent debt that we and all Australian taxpayers have to pay back—to get dodgy school halls and pink batts and to have nothing else to show for it was just a crime. No-one would mind if the Labor government had built the freeway from Sydney up to Brisbane, or the Bruce Highway, or even the inland rail. But no—pink batts and dodgy school halls; that is what you got for your money. It was just a waste of money. So, when they try and have a go at us for economic mismanagement, I just laugh. They have no runs on the board except for growing our debt.

I admit we have taken some very difficult decisions. This afternoon's question time dealt with the family tax benefit B changes. The reason we are making those changes is that we are trying to get people back into work. Someone has got to pay. That is what no-one seems to be prepared to say when they promise X, Y or Z because they think it is a good idea. They do not say who is going to pay, and the answer is, more often than not: it is the taxpayer. Currently, government securities on debt are over $402,636 million. That does not include residential backed mortgage securities, so you can put a bit on top of that as well. Thank God the Future Fund was isolated, because they would have spent that too. They did try back in 2012. They had a little nibble and tried to get a little bit, but fortunately they were not allowed to get hold of the Future Fund.

GDP growth at two per cent is meant to be a crime. That is fantastic if you realise that our economy is linked to China, which has had a massive slowdown. We have a huge linkage in the commodities and, of course, commodities have come off the boil because China has come off the boil. It is a no-brainer. So it is not that surprising. But job ads grew in August and September. Unemployment, despite all the losses in the mining sector is still level at 6.2 per cent. That is pretty good, considering. There have been 118,000 jobs created in last year. That is a good figure. The participation rate is up, at 65 per cent. So, even though we have got more people who are getting the confidence to go back into the economy, our unemployment rate is staying the same. We have got 900 jobs on the Pacific Highway— (Time expired)

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