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

The MPI that I speak on today is the urgent need for responsible fiscal management in the upcoming budget to deliver real reforms for working people. We should change the title of this segment from MPI to 'The Comedy Hour', because what we heard from the member for Throsby was absolutely comical. Before coming to this place I was a successful transport operator in Queensland. Prior to that, I was a banker. Being part of the Liberal family on this side of the House, every day I welcome the opportunity to debate the fiscal management of this country and I welcome the opportunity to let Australians hear not the spin that Labor would have you believe but the real facts about how this economy could be run better.

Before I speak about a couple of things I want to pick up one of the points that was made by the member for Chifley about Australia's AAA credit rating. This is interesting for people to get their heads around. Why do we have a AAA credit rating at the moment when we have record debt and enormous deficits? When we were in government, we had money in the bank and no debt. Wouldn't we have been in a stronger position compared to today, when we have a heap of debt and no capacity to repay it? Why do have a better credit rating today than we had then? I will tell you why: Standard and Poor's and Moody's have what are called comparative credit ratings. Australia is compared to the rest of the world. As the major economies around the globe have softened—they have basically gone to hell in a hand basket—that has increased Australia's comparative position. That is why we have a AAA credit rating. I can assure you that the false hypnotic phrases that come from this government in reference to their fiscal management are a joke.

I would also like to bring your attention to the comment made earlier this week by the member for Chifley. He said that Labor will have the fastest fiscal consolidation in four decades. That is all this government can do: talk about what is going to happen; the old 'gunna', 'what we will do'. They cannot talk about their track record, because their track record is pretty ordinary. And I will get to the amount of debt and deficits, because I know that the member for Throsby is interested to know about some of the records that his government has been in charge of: record debt and record deficit.

When it comes to the fastest fiscal consolidation in four decades, I want to break down for you what fiscal consolidation is: it is the capacity for a government to pay back debt. With reference to Labor and its out-of-control spending, one can draw an analogy that their fastest fiscal consolidation—which may happen sometime in the future—is similar to a contestant going on TheBiggest Loser after jamming 50 kilos on in order to rip it off quicker. A fast fiscal consolidation by this Labor government will only be a result of the enormous blow-out in their spending.

Let us talk about the suggestion that they will have the capacity to make these changes or have a surplus down the track. In order to understand whether they have the capacity to forecast such things and whether they have integrity—in order for us to be able to take what they say at face value—we need to go back and have a look at their track record of forecasting. Let us go back just over 12 months to the MYEFO books—and for those people who are here in the gallery, MYEFO stands for Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook. These guys should get a copy of it from time to time.

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