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

yet nowhere in all of the budget figures at any time does the Labor Party ever get to the 22.9 per cent of GDP of the coalition in its last year. Then, belatedly, in a defensive mood, the Treasurer comes into this place and says, 'Oh, well, look at the average of the coalition. We are less than that.' So I looked at the average of the Labor Party so that we can compare apples with apples. Under the coalition on average over all of that period, including the very difficult period when we had negative growth during the Asian financial crisis, the coalition's percentage increased significantly, as it does when the economy comes down—the percentage of government expenditure rises as a percentage of GDP—but on average the Labor Party has been spending 24.6 per cent of GDP and the coalition just 24.03 per cent. When you add in the revenue and expenditure associated with the carbon tax at $26 a tonne—boom, boom! It all goes.

Do you know what, Mr Deputy Speaker? This is the challenge for the government: assuming there are no major new policy initiatives over the next two years, assuming the carbon tax is not going to have any impact on the budget, assuming there are no other challenges ahead, assuming that the terms of trade will remain at the highest level in 150 years, assuming that old Penny Wong can control the Prime Minister as she claimed to do. My goodness, what a mud wrestle! Senator Penny Wong claimed that she was going to control the Prime Minister's excessive demands for spending. I say to you: this mob will never deliver a budget surplus. This mob will never have the courage to deliver a budget surplus and, as the member for Longman said so vividly earlier, in question time, in his entire lifetime Labor have never delivered a budget surplus. Even though he was conceived in a surplus he was delivered in a deficit. It just goes to show what a celebration it was when Labor last delivered a budget surplus, and when Labor delivers a surplus again we will all give a good cheer and have a great party.

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