George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Assistant Treasurer and the member for Chifley talked about Clive Palmer and the CIA. I do not know about the CIA but, gee, I wish I had one of those memory erasers that the Men in Black have because I cannot get back the 25 minutes of my life that was just wasted listening to the previous member's speech, but at least I can forget about it.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter of public importance, which is:

The urgent need for the Government to deliver budget transparency for the business community.

The words of those opposite might rubbish billionaires but their economic policies rubbish families and small businesses right across this nation. Transparency is definitely needed. It is not just an urgent matter for business; it is an urgent matter for the community and the country as a whole.

Small business is the backbone of this country. It is small business that finds itself at the pointy end of some of the worst policies that any Australian government has ever produced. When small business is hurting, families are hurting. Right now small businesses are at a loss as to what the future holds for them. They see a government that is out of control. They see a government that is going out of its way to destroy the economy, industries, jobs and, quite honestly, families. They see a government desperately trying to hide—like a bunch of school kids who just broke the vase—the evidence, trying to hide the broken pieces of the economy and sweeping the evidence of their own recklessness and stupidity straight under the carpet. Manufacturing a network of deceit and fabrication to cover its tracks is not the answer.

The business community needs certainty and not the certainty that is being peddled by this government, not the certainty of tax, tax, tax and more tax, for that is certain failure. The best predictor of future behaviour for this government is its past behaviour. We look and see what this government has done. It is desperately trying to hide all of these failures, trying to sweep them under the rug and trying to hide the cost blowouts. In so many different programs it is trying to hide the waste, trying to hide the record budget deficits and trying to hide the record debt. But the problem is that there is no rug big enough to hide all that because it needs a bigger and bigger rug every day.

Remember when the government said the 2011-12 budget deficit would be $12 billion? That was just 12 months ago. Then it was revised to $22.6 billion. The budget deficit has almost doubled in a year.

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