John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, it would have been by accident. Something would have gone wrong! So here we are cleaning up their financial mess. That is what this whole issue about Defence spending comes back to. We inherited such a mess. To me, being in this place and being part of government and the parliament is about being a caretaker for future generations of Australians, whether it be protecting our borders, bringing the asylum seeker boats to a stop, funding our Defence Force or managing the money and not leaving future generations of Australians wallowing in debt while mortgaging their futures away.

Every time we as a coalition get into government following a period of Labor government we see that the chequebook has been simply splashed around. There is a debt. The bank account is empty. It does not matter whether they are state or federal Labor governments. In the history of the last 40 years, that is how it has worked. Hence, we have to make sensible budget decisions, no matter in which portfolio, in relation to how we spend the taxpayer dollars here in our nation. As Senator Abetz says, the government do not have money. We take money off the people or we borrow it. When we borrow it, it is up to the people to pay it back with interest. We are now paying $1,000 million a month interest on the debt that that lot over there built in just six years in government. Here they are saying, 'Let's build the submarines. Let's get it moving.' 'Let's do it properly,' is what I say. Let's get the best result we can for the Australian dollar to give us the best defence possible and to create jobs here locally as well. It does not matter whether the submarines are wholly and solely built here or whether there is a mixture of building overseas and installations here—whatever it comes out to be—so long as it is the best result for the Australian taxpayer and for the defence of our nation.

I find it so ironic when Senator Conroy says, 'Here's the Senate report,' and yet, when I instigated a Senate inquiry and we gave a unanimous recommendation from all sides of politics, the previous government did nothing. As I said, that was on the situation of insolvency practitioners where we have such a farcical system in many respects. People are overcharging and the little creditors—the Aussie battlers, as I call them—are getting less than 10c in the dollar for 96 per cent of liquidations. What did the Labor government do? They did nothing.

Amazingly, when those opposite were in government the percentage of GDP for Defence spending was the lowest since 1938, prior to the Second World War. Yet here they are lecturing us on what we should be doing as far as establishing, maintaining and growing our Defence mechanisms and assets here in our nation. I find it amazing. This is a situation where those opposite suffer so much amnesia. They have simply forgotten what they did in government and here they are lecturing us on getting it right. They have always got it wrong when it comes to managing money. That is a history that they are known for right throughout the nation. We as conservatives have the job to clean up their financial mess, as we will do.