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

Don't interject, old son—listen carefully. When you compare us to the fastest runners in the field, Australia with its11.6 per cent of GDP debt compares with Norway, whose debt is minus 169 per cent. That means they have more savings and they have not got any debt. Finland's debt is minus 51 per cent of GDP, and Sweden's debt is minus 17½ per cent of GDP—but, no, the government says we have been hit really hard by a loss of revenue. So I thought, 'Well, how do we compare?' I go back to Norway. Norway improved by 45.8 per cent over the last five years. Finland was roughly stable. Sweden improved 5.1 per cent. Our debt deteriorated 17 per cent. So who are they comparing us with?

Why does Labor keep doing this? Why does Labor embrace mediocrity? Why does Labor embrace the lowest common denominator, when you should compare us to the best? Because we want Australia to be best. We do not want to be second best or third best; we want our nation to be the best that it can be. We want our nation to be the best in the world, and we want to ensure that our children start at the top of the mountain, not at the bottom of the mountain. We want to ensure that we give the next generation and those beyond a better quality of life—an even better quality of life than that which we have. Yes, we have a better quality of life than our parents and our grandparents, and so it should be. But we owe that to others. Why? That is the way humanity should run. We should aim to be better. We should aim to leave a better legacy.

One of the reasons why this debt level from Labor hurts so much is the terms of trade: the demand for what is in our ground or in our oceans is far greater now than it has been at any other time in our history. The terms of trade are higher now than any day during the previous, Howard government. Yet it was the Howard government that had to pay off Labor's $96 billion of debt and left $60 billion to $70 billion of extra money available, and it is Labor that comes in and spends all of that and then keeps adding to the debt bill so that we have over $263 billion to try and repay. You know what, Madam Deputy Speaker—Mr Speaker—Mr Deputy Speaker—

I know, 'There is no sex in the chair,' as Joan Child once said. I say this to you, Deputy Speaker Scott: we are ready to climb this mountain. We are ready to pay back the debt. We are ready, on behalf of the Australian people, to do the hard yards. It starts here. It starts within the size of government. It starts on the basis that we have to live within our means before we ask the Australian people to suffer more at the hands of Labor. We are the ones that are determined to turn the place around. We are the ones that are determined to deliver hope to generations of Australians that tomorrow will be better than today, because we are the ones that know how to live within our means, and we will not ask the Australian people to do anything that we are not prepared to do ourselves.

See this speech in context