Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Hansard source

That is $7 billion! The member for Cowper is right to ask, because I ask the Australian people listening today: can you just imagine what we could do if we did not have to pay back Labor's debt? Could you imagine if we did not have to pay back the principle but just the interest alone—if we only had to pay back the $7 billion a year? This is Kevin Rudd's and Julia Gillard's gift to our children: this massive debt that they are going to have to repay. Think about what we could do, as members in this place in each of our own electorates, if we did not have to pay back that debt. If we are in the fortunate position sometime later this year to form government, imagine what you could do, the good you could do in your community, with $7 billion per year. Think of the hospitals we could be building. Think of the roads that we will not be able to build because of the debt, and the improved aged-care and childcare facilities—think of all the things we could be doing for regional Australia and the cities. Think of all the things we could be doing if we were not paying back that interest rate bill. It is interesting, because the interest rate bill alone would pay for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

So, when it comes to economic management, we have this Treasurer and this government failing to deliver any certainty or stability for the Australian people and Australian households. At the same time, they are out there making new promises—casting grand ideas out there and throwing them up in the media as if they had been paid for. But the simple fact is: they have not been budgeted for, and projects like the National Disability Insurance Scheme will never be delivered by a Labor government because even if it wins in September this year it will not have the money to pay for them.

As we have just emerged from a summer of natural disasters, which will obviously have an impact on the budget bottom line, hopefully this government is not going to go back to the Australian people and demand another levy, because prudent governments should be preparing for such events and responsible governments would be making contingencies, in a nation such as ours, for the impact of such natural disasters.

On that note, and in conclusion, I will perhaps finish with a word of caution to members opposite, and perhaps even members on this side: the public will judge us very harshly in this place this year if we are seen to be wasting time talking about ourselves. I can assure you now that people in Bundaberg shovelling mud out of their living rooms do not care about the latest Newspoll, and the Gippsland farmers who are out there today rebuilding fences in my community could not care less if the caucus is leaking to the Australian media. They want us to be focused on their interests—which goes to the very heart of the debate we are having here today.

Those opposite have tried to claim that economic conditions have changed and that is the reason for their major write-down in revenue which has caused this broken promise on the surplus, but the bottom line remains unquestioned: this government is actually receiving more revenue than previous governments but has failed to manage the budget in an economically sustainable manner. Australians deserve better from their government than having this divided and distracted mess. Australians deserve better economic management and the coalition government which can deliver it after September this year. (Time expired)

See this speech in context