Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

He was absolutely incapable, as my learned colleague highlights.

Apart from the member for Kingston blithely dismissing the discussion of this very important matter as merely a scare campaign, the thing that really struck me, when I listened more attentively to the Assistant Treasurer, the member for Lindsay, was that he said there was a terrible pattern of deceit occurring here. He actually had the temerity to point the finger at this side of the chamber. He suggested that somehow this is an issue for us. I have three words for him: pot, kettle, black. If we want to talk about a pattern let us focus on the deceit that has been practised on the Australian people.

Let's first focus on the promise that has been made by the Treasurer to deliver next year a $1.5 billion surplus. In question time today, when the Treasurer was asked to guarantee this $1.5 billion surplus, he talked about it being simply an aspiration. If we want to talk about deceit, why is the Treasurer not prepared to guarantee this tiny hurdle that he set himself, of a $1.5 billion surplus? Why isn't he prepared to put his job on the line? Why isn't he prepared to resign if he does not meet this tiny target? Because he simply does not believe what he says. He is practising a cruel hoax on the people of Australia. The reason he cannot guarantee it, the reason he will not put his job on the line, is that he has a huge problem—a $120 billion black hole. If there is a pattern on the other side, it is a pattern of spending and taxing.

Today we heard from Standard & Poor's that in fact we can expect a $20 billion deficit next year. This comes off the back of a previous report released by Macroeconomics that said it would be $15 billion. It seems to be going up—it seems to be trending in the wrong direction. The reason the $120 billion is so important is that it is $20,000 for the average four-person Australian family. We know that this $120 billion is not simply a one-off. What the government are doing with all of their new spending announcements is locking in recurrent spending. Why do we care about that? We care because at some point someone is going to have to pay for it. Someone is going to have to pay for the big-spending announcements of the government that have not been funded, that are not accounted for in the budget.

Despite the fact that the Prime Minister made the claim that every time she made an announcement she would properly provide for that announcement, she has not done so on this occasion; nor has the Treasurer. We are simply told we have to wait for MYEFO when it is announced and simply trust the government that they will somehow account for this spending. Well, it is not just us who are concerned on this side of the chamber about the government's big spending announcements. In fact, there are many on the other side of the chamber who are concerned.

I read with great interest an article by Stephen Scott and Jessica Irvine in today's Courier Mail in Brisbane which said Labor backbenchers are urging the Gillard government to raise taxes and cut perks for high earners to ensure it can pay for big-spending promises. Labor is doing that because it knows that is the only way to fund its promises. It comes off the back of the concerns raised by five Labor backbenchers who yesterday tackled the Treasurer about government spending priorities and the ability to pay for those priorities. Who are these brave souls on the opposite side of the chamber? Who are these people who were sick of the culture of deceit in this government? They were Senator Doug Cameron, Ed Husic, Janelle Saffin, Kelvin Thomson and Jeff Lyons. They are the only people who are concerned about the future generations of Australians who will be forced to foot the bill for the spending announcements.

But why has it got such urgency today? It is because we also read that the government, on top of their billions of dollars of announcements to do with their dental scheme, their Gonski plan and the NDIS, is going to spend an extra $1.4 billion in paying off childcare workers. Why is it doing that? It is because it is a union demand. It is a demand by United Voice, which is a union, and, as was said and reported in the paper today, it is going to be paid by this government. They have not denied it. They are going to announce it because Julia Gillard is being forced to. In an article today it says she is being forced to shore up union support for her leadership.

So when they talk about jobs on that side of the chamber, the only job they are really concerned about is Julia Gillard's job. The only job they are concerned about saving is Julia Gillard's. Julia Gillard says we have to wait for MYEFO, as does the Treasurer. We have to wait to understand how it is that they are going to fund this $120-billion black hole. They say we should trust them. If we were to trust the other side of the chamber, we would have believed them when they said this year they were going to deliver a deficit of only $12 billion. But that grew over an 18-month period from $12 billion to $23 billion to $37 billion and hit $44 billion. So how can we trust anything that the government has to say on this issue? How can we trust a Prime Minister who said in this term of parliament that she would throw open the curtains and let the sunshine in and yet, in response to this matter of public importance, we have not heard one word of detail from those opposite as to how their $120-billion black hole will be paid for? How can we trust a Prime Minister that only days before the last election promised that there would be no carbon tax are under the government she led? And she back flipped weeks later in order to do a dirty deal with the Greens so that she could form government.

See this speech in context