Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

of this government's hypocrisy. On 22 October the Treasurer, with equal parts chutzpah and hypocrisy, stood in the blue room and said: 'By the way'—casually, he said—'we are going to increase the debt limit to half a trillion dollars.' Around Australia, voters, even conservatives, scratched their heads and said: 'Is this the same Joe Hockey? Is this the same Joe Hockey who told us—not that debt was a challenge, not that debt was a problem, not even that debt was a crisis—that we had a budget emergency?' Well, some emergency—especially if the way to fix it is to increase the debt limit to half a trillion dollars! When this government said, 'We will pay back the debt,' did the Australian people think that that meant increasing the debt limit to half a trillion dollars? The Prime Minister stood in the chamber today and said: 'We never voted against an increase in the debt limit when we were in opposition—we might have voted against stimulus measures.' That is just plain wrong. It is misleading this parliament and misleading the Australian people. He and all his colleagues voted against increases in the debt limit. Now they are proposing the biggest one in history: a 67 per cent—$200 billion—increase in the debt limit of this country. Why? Because debt is going to increase. 'Debt going to surge, Abbott admits'—is that what the he told the Australian people before the election, Mr Deputy Speaker? Is this a headline we would have seen before September 7? Is this a headline you would have put in your election pamphlets—

See this speech in context