Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline the importance of putting the budget on a sustainable footing? How will a strong budget help my constituents in Robertson?

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

I thank the honourable member for Robertson for the question and recognise that through her effort and also the effort of the member for Dobell, who is right here, they have been able to secure a significant increase in the number of real jobs on the Central Coast. In fact, 600 new Commonwealth jobs will be located in Gosford, which is a great outcome. And I am pleased to advise the House that if Mike Baird is re-elected on Saturday he has pledged a further 300 jobs to the Central Coast, which means nearly 1,000 jobs on the Central Coast as a result of the efforts of the coalition at both a Commonwealth and a state level, because we are the parties that want to see more jobs.

We want to see more jobs and greater prosperity, and it is one of the reasons why we have seen a nearly threefold increase in the number of jobs created every single day by Australians since the coalition was elected. Under Labor, of course, in their last year in office around 200 jobs were created every day. Under the coalition, that is closer to 600 jobs every day. And, of course, if people have jobs, they have an opportunity to build prosperity. They have an opportunity to build financial security. And, importantly, if you have money coming in and you live within your means, you get greater choices. Just as that applies to individuals, it applies to a country as well. If a country lives within its means as we aspire for Australia to do then we have greater choices as a nation. We can have greater control over our destiny. We can choose to invest more in education or in health or in national security. We can choose to do that. But, at the moment, the Australian government has to borrow $100 million every day just to meet our day-to-day bills. That is the legacy of Labor: $100 million a day just to pay the daily bills. And of course it is totally unsustainable to continue with that. You cannot keep living on a credit card; sooner or later the money is called in.

That is why we want to get the budget onto a sustainable basis. We want to get to the point where we live within our means, and the budget to be delivered in just under seven weeks time will be responsible. It will be measured and it will be fair, and it will focus on jobs, growth and opportunity, because Australia's days—Australia's very best days—are ahead of us but as a nation we need to control our destiny. Living within our means, making sure that our expenditure is sustainable, starting to pay down the burden of government debt—that gives us greater control of our destiny and in turn gives every Australian greater control of their lives.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Today the Chief Scientist has said that physics, chemistry, maths and earth science alone contribute $145 billion to the Australian economy, so why is the Prime Minister cutting $115 million from the CSIRO, which will result in 161 job losses in New South Wales in this year alone? In fact, given that government MPs have now taken to doing science experiments in parliament, shouldn't the government actually be listening to the experts?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a government which spends some $9 billion a year on research. The CSIRO, the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council—about $9 billion a year we spend on research. In the years and decades to come we want to spend more and we certainly want to see more of our best people going into teaching and more of our best teachers going into science, maths, technology and engineering because these STEM subjects are very important.

I have been asked about cuts to the CSIRO's budget. Labor cut $63 million from the CSIRO. What outrageous hypocrisy. What absolutely outrageous hypocrisy. This is a government which takes science seriously, but this is also a government which takes budget responsibility seriously, and the best thing we can do for all of our great institutions is to be in a position to make them sustainable, to give them sustainable, long-term funding for the years and decades ahead, and that is why above all else this is a government which is absolutely committed to budget responsibility.