Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

That was quite an extraordinary contribution from the member for Gellibrand. In particular, it was the sheer hypocrisy of his statement talking about how he disagreed with the reform to the tertiary education sector, when he himself went through a private university. How extraordinary that once again we have another Labor member come into the chamber and rail against deregulation of the tertiary sector and say how inappropriate it is and how dare students be required to pay fees for their university education, when he himself went to a private tertiary institution. The hypocrisy seems to know no bounds.

But it is more than that. The member for Gellibrand, like other Labor members in this debate, stand up—you would have thought, having listened to that contribution, that Labor are opposed to these bills. I bet there are very few members in the public gallery who thought that that was a speech in support of the bill. The notion that Labor members would contribute in the way that they have, but actually not be opposing this bill, is extraordinary.

But the thing is, Deputy Speaker Vasta, you have got to ask the question: why is Labor doing it? Why are Labor members adopting this approach where they rail against it and they say how bad it is but then they will just sweep it through. The reason why—let me explain—is because, for the Labor Party, this is not about policy; it is about politics. We see Labor member after Labor member both in the chamber and in the media get on their high horse about this budget and rail about how it is unfair to working Australians and talk about how the cuts are unnecessary and make claims about how there should be no tax increases, and talk about how the fuel re-indexation is going to add 40c to the average cost of a tank of fuel for the average Australian family. But they never mention the fact that we are trying to cut the carbon tax and save households $550 a year. They never mention the fact that, as a result of Labor's reckless spending over the last six years, we have seen Australia reach the point where we had the fastest growing rate of government expenditure out of the 17 surveyed IMF countries in the world. They never mention the fact that, thanks to Labor's spending, Australia is going to face a situation where the next generation of Aussie kids will be paying off Labor's debt for 20 or 30 years.

Instead, we get the Labor Party coming here and saying: 'We don't like this budget. This is a very nasty budget. We don't like the cuts that have been made. These aren't appropriate. We don't like the changes to the growth in pensions. That's not appropriate. We don't like the temporary budget repair levy. That is not appropriate. Oh, but we are all about fiscal responsibility.' You know what, Deputy Speaker Vasta, the Australian public can see straight through the sham that is the Australian Labor Party. Because whilst Labor likes to run around the countryside and make out that they are all about standing up for average Australians, the truth of the matter is that Labor's position on the budget, and Labor's response to the announced changes that we made in the budget, represent nearly $40 billion of additional spending that Labor wants to put back into the budget. This is at a time when this government is doing what it can to try to save the next generation of Australians from inheriting a country with more debt that we did and at a time when we are trying to stop Australia continuing on the pathway where this country was left borrowing $1 billion a month just to pay the interest on the debt that Labor accumulated.

Is it any wonder that we say the Labor Party cannot be taken seriously? Because, unfortunately, there is one inescapable fact, and that is this: we cannot continue with the status quo. We cannot continue to live beyond our means. We cannot continue to borrow $1 billion a month just to pay the interest. As I often say to constituents, that example is the same as saying to a constituent, 'You keep paying your monthly instalment of your mortgage on your credit card.' The Australian public know that that is not a long-term solution. They know that that is not a sustainable solution. They know that that is not the approach that makes sure they live within their means. But the Australian Labor Party says that is absolutely fine. The Australian Labor Party are happy for us to continue borrowing a billion dollars a month. They will say that they are not; they will say that they are all about responsibility. But, unfortunately, when the rubber hits the road Labor never puts forward any solutions. Instead, they rail against our changes, they rail against our reforms and they, as a consequence of their decisions, have Australia in a situation, if they were in power, of wanting to put $40 billion spending back into the budget. So I certainly don't take the Labor Party too seriously.

Ms Kate Ellis interjecting—

I take the interjection from the shadow minister opposite, who said, 'They would not want to find themselves in hospital.'

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