Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

After those failed lines, the member for Gellibrand should be on the stage—the next stage out of town. Can I also thank the member for Bruce for supporting my re-election campaign. I will be looking forward to his campaign donation when I run strongly for the seat of Bass. Can I also congratulate the member for Hume, who made some excellent points about fairness.

But I am going to focus on hypocrisy, because getting a lecture on economic performance from the Labor Party is a like being lectured by North Korea about the value of the UN, or a Daesh lecture about human rights, or Bill Shorten's lecture in question time yesterday on the importance of loyalty to prime ministers. All of those things highlight the sort of rampant hypocrisy we get from those opposite.

Everyone knows that Labor have dealt themselves out of the rational debate when it comes to the economy. They know about the Labor forecast in 2012 of a $2 billion surplus, which at their 2013 budget suddenly became an $18 billion deficit, and then in the aftermath of the 2013 election turned out to be a $48 billion deficit. That represents a $50 billion negative turnaround in our economic circumstances. But is gets worse. Because of debt repayments and Labor locking in spending growth above inflation, the Treasurer made very clear that this country today spends $100m each and every day more than we earn in revenue. Today we paid $40 million in interest repayments on Labor's debt. Tomorrow it will be another $40 million; the next day it will be another $40 million. The opportunity cost of that is appalling. It costs $50 million to build a new school in this country. So when you think about that, we could pretty much build a new school every day from those interest repayments—from that opportunity cost.

What that means, and we have heard other speakers say it, is that we are mortgaging the future income of our children and grandchildren. Labor may not wish to listen to us, but they should listen to the honourable leaders of Labor's past. They should read that wonderful article from Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and John Howard, on 1 January this year. I hesitate to use the word 'leader' on that side, because former Prime Ministers Hawke and Keating belled the cat on what an appalling lack of leadership we have seen from Mr Shorten. Mr Hawke said Australia's deteriorating budget must be addressed and 'governments cannot just keep pushing up taxes'. Keating calls for a return to the bipartisan economic reform of the past, where surplus budgets and structural economic reform were normal. They long for a return to the lengthy period of fiscal responsibility that allowed Australia to weather the global financial crisis. Recently-retired Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson warned that failing to act now 'consigns Australia to a deteriorating future'. Chris Richardson, of Access Economics, says, 'If we haven't repaired the budget starting now, we will really regret that down the track.' Phil Bowen, from the Parliamentary Budget Office, says debt and deficit does not improve with age: 'The longer you leave it the more exposed you become and the harder it is to wind it back.' John Edwards, an RBA board member appointed by Wayne Swan, and who was Paul Keating's Principal Economic Adviser, says: 'We're accumulating debt as a higher share of GDP and of course in absolute terms, it is absolutely astronomical compared to far more serious episodes in Australian history.'

Put simply, a more sustainable and prosperous economy cannot be achieved through yet more borrowing and spending. If it could, the wise Australian people would have given the Rudd-Gillard Rudd-Milne model of economic management a third term, to spend our way out of trouble. But they did not do that. They decided that they would take a different path, and we are taking those hard decisions that you were never able to take.

The fourth Intergenerational Report will highlight some important things, but if you are looking for a 'canary in the coalmine' insight of what lies ahead for Australia, look no further than Japan, where the sale of adult nappies today exceeds those of the baby variety. The implications for healthcare, for pharmaceuticals and for residential aged care facilities are potentially horrendous.

I say to those opposite: listen to the wise heads of the past, who have been there and have done that. Work with us on those big strategic issues confronting our country, and let's take a more prosperous future back to the Australian people.

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