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

A little over five years ago, when an Intergenerational report was released, the then shadow Treasurer held a press conference and said that the report had 'more hot air than the Hindenburg'. Mr Hockey was predicting his own report five years later! In fact, he was predicting his entire tenure in the Treasury portfolio! 'More hot air than the Hindenburg': he was predicting his entire reign over the Treasury portfolio.

We know that the Australian people, when they think of generational change, are very interested in one generational change; that is a change of government, and a change of government to a government which actually understands the challenges and opportunities in Australia.

We know that this document, the 2015 Intergenerational report, is a gross politicisation of what should be a proper process. We know that this document is one last desperate attempt by the Treasurer to sell his unfair budget. Here we are, all those months later, when normally a government would be well into preparing the next budget—they would be well into preparing the final details of the next budget—and the Treasurer is still flailing around trying to sell the last one and abusing the Charter of Budget Honesty as he does so. He is flailing around with a new narrative every day—a new excuse, a new alibi, a new story—because he cannot sell what is a bad product, and that bad product is his handiwork. It is his federal budget.

This report tells us quite a lot; it tells us a lot about this government. It tells us about their desperation. Forty-five times this document refers to 'previous policy'. What are those previous policies? They are the previous policies of this Treasurer, as outlined in his Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook. He could have chosen as a starting point that Pre-Election Fiscal Outlook, signed off not by me, not by Minister Wong, but by the then secretaries of the departments of Treasury and Finance, independent of government. I read the PEFO when it was released to the public, as I should. It was an independent document, signed off by the secretaries of those two departments. Did the Treasurer use that as the starting point for his 'previous policy'? No, because that would not be politically convenient. He had to use as a starting point the mid-year economic forecast, which included his own decisions. It included his decision to give $9 billion to the Reserve Bank. It included his decision to increase spending by a $14 billion. It included his doubling of the deficit in Australia. That is the fact of the matter. That is the starting point he chose as 'previous policy'.

If you are going to engage in using the Intergenerational report and the Charter of Budget Honesty to sledge a previous government, at least get your facts right. At least start with a bit of honesty; at least start with the pre-election economic forecast signed off by the departments of Treasury and Finance.

As I said, this report does tells a fair bit about this government; we heard during question time. It tells us what they think about climate change.

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