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

I thank the honourable member for her question. It is so important that we ask Australians to contribute now. We do so because—and I understand this is an old Irish saying—you fix the roof while the sun is shining. In this case we have $667 billion of debt. If we do not start the process now of trying to ensure that we never get to that level, then the pain associated with dealing with it in a few years time is going to be far greater. We have been very up-front with the Australian people in asking them to pay a temporary budget repair levy on incomes above $180,000. We believe it is only fair that everyone contribute. It is also the case that we are asking Australians to pay for indexation in their fuel excise and, if they contribute that excise, in law we are going to hypothecate it to road funding which is going to substantially increase into the future. In fact, in this budget we are spending well in excess of an additional $11 billion on roads, and the total excise increase would be the equivalent of just over $2 billion.

Mr Husic interjecting—

See this speech in context