Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline to the House the right choices the government is making in delivering fair and needs-based funding for Australian students? Why does the government believe that it is important to sustainably pay for the spending commitments that we make to the Australian people?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wright for his question and for his understanding of the fact that it is absolutely essential, at a time when wages growth is modest, that we guarantee essential services for all Australians. In this budget, the Turnbull government has said yes to guaranteeing the essential services that Australians rely on. We have said yes to guaranteeing Medicare. We have said yes to fully funding the National Disability Insurance Scheme. We have said yes to $18.6 billion in real money, in real funding, for needs-based funding of our schools, which includes a 60 per cent increase over 10 years in per student funding in public schools in this country. That is what we have said yes to.

Those opposite, the Labor Party, are, in this parliament, saying no to guaranteeing essential services. In fact, on six separate occasions in this place when it came to voting for real money for real schools they said no.

A government member: How many times?

On six separate occasions the Labor Party voted no to more funding for public schools, for non-government schools, for schools with children with disability. They voted no, no, no and no—and two more noes on top of that. That is what we are getting from this opposition. It is all about the no—it is never about the yes—on working with the government to guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on. But Australians can rely on the promises of this government, because they are paid for. They are paid for because this government lives within its means.

Under this government, expenditure growth has been at two per cent in real terms and revenue growth at 3.3 per cent. Under the Labor Party, real growth in expenditure was at four per cent but revenue growth was at less than one per cent. The Labor Party spent money four times faster than it was coming in. That is why you cannot trust the Labor Party with their empty promises. They did not fund the NDIS, they did not fund their schools promises and they did not fund their health promises when they were in government. So, when the Australian public hears the Labor Party rattling around about spending money, we know that they will always spend it but we also know that the money is not there to pay for it. Because this government lives within its means, as we have demonstrated again in this budget, we have reduced the growth in debt by over two-thirds from what we inherited from those opposite. Our real growth in spending is at the lowest level of any government in 50 years. Those opposite spent and spent and then they promised and promised, but we know they can never be trusted to deliver.