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

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on the Labor 2013-14 Budget Savings (Measures No.1) Bill 2014, the clear purpose of which is to support the all-important issues of debt control and fiscal responsibility. As our political history records, national debt in Australia exploded exponentially during the Labor-Green years from 2007 to 2013. Labor spent, and promised to spend, recklessly and seemingly without regard for the long term consequences. In the end, as we know, Australians grew weary of the spendathon and threw them out—in the case of my seat of Bass, with a swing that was the second biggest in Australia at almost 11 per cent. The term 'spend like a drunken sailor' has often been used to describe periods of Labor government. The Howard government toiled for years to clean up after one such period of economic vandalism, and the current effort by the Abbott government is history repeating itself. But the term 'spend like a drunken sailor' does our navy a great disservice; Labor's approach to public money was far less respectful than what might have been expected from modestly-remunerated sailors—drunk or otherwise!

I mentioned the Howard government's years of toil to pay down Labor's debt, and it is worth recalling former Prime Minister Howard's words as he framed the job ahead just prior to becoming Prime Minister in 1996:

When Labor came to power Australia owed the rest of the world about $23,000 million. We now owe the rest of the world $180,000 million. Nothing, my friends, symbolises absolutely completely and comprehensively more than that disgraceful figure the total failure of Labor's economic management over the last 13 years.

The reasons for this bill resonate with the sentiments expressed by former Prime Minister Howard. They resonate with the public's insistence that this parliament continues to redress the current and future debt burden on all Australians.

This bill repeals the second round of carbon tax related personal income tax cuts, which are due to start on 1 July this year. This measure has been introduced to the parliament twice under the Clean Energy (Income Tax Rates and Other Amendments) Bill 2013 as part of the package of carbon tax repeal bills. Yet the Senate has now twice voted down this budget repair measure, which was actually put forward by the former Labor government—that is right, this bill seeks to implement a measure first announced by the Labor Party and now they are blocking it. In Wayne Swan's final budget, handed down on 14 May 2013, the former government deferred a second round of personal income tax cuts, resulting in a $1.5 billion saving over the then forward estimates. Due to the addition of two further years to the forward estimates since then, the measure is now worth $2.8 billion to the budget over the next four years. The problem is, the former Labor-Green government never followed through. This was one of nearly 100 'announced but unimplemented' taxation measures. Since becoming the Opposition, they have now twice voted against legislation that implements their own budget repair measure—and they double the damage to the economy by providing no alternative plan to pay for their 180 degree U-turn on this measure. This is not the first time that the Labor Party have done this. They are not only standing in the way of this $2.8 billion savings measure but are also blocking a total of $6.5 billion in other measures that they themselves announced:

You can also add the change of Labor's Student Start-Up Scholarship, provided as a grant, to a loan repayable through HECS—a $2.1 billion measure. You can also add the change to apply an efficiency dividend to university funding—a $1.2 billion measure. You can add the abolition of the discount for paying HECS fees up front—a $336 million measure. When questioned by Chris Uhlmann on ABC AM why the Labor Party is now opposing their own savings, Bill Shorten's only response was, 'Chris, we're the Labor Party.' It is a bit like the fable of the frog and scorpion, where the frog is asked by the scorpion to ferry it across the river. The frog is scared of being stung until the scorpion explains, logically, that if he was to sting the frog they would both drown. Reluctantly the frog agrees and, sure enough, halfway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog, dooming them both to drowning and death. As they are about to sink into the river, the frog says to the scorpion, 'But why?' The scorpion say, 'It's in my nature.'

As we have seen, Australians remember being economically stung by Labor and Labor-Green governments from 2007 to 2013. They understand it is deep in Labor's nature, in their DNA, to spend and borrow unsustainably, and they will not be stung twice. They rejected the Rudd-Gillard-Milne model of economic vandalism in 2013 and they continue to reject Labor's tax, spend, borrow approach to economic management. The sad thing is that the Leader of the Opposition is the IED of scorpion bites—indiscriminately stinging even his own people. There will be some interesting commentary on that from two former Labor prime ministers on the ABC on Tuesday night.

Labor's cynical opposition to their own savings measures is laid bare through a $58.6 billion black hole that continues to grow with every blocked saving—with every new unfunded promise. The Australian people can see Labor has learned nothing from their repudiation at the 2013 election. They understand that we have to act to repair the budget. The Intergenerational report clearly explains why and the Labor-Green politicians in this parliament will continue to be rejected by the Australian people while they maintain a tin ear to the need to restore our economic freedom of action.

Consider the economic inheritance of the Labor-Green years from 2007 to 2013. The cumulative deficits inherited from the former government, as outlined in the 2013-14 MYEFO, total $123 billion for the four years to 30 June 2017. We have now brought that down to $82 billion over the next 4 years. Government debt, if we did nothing to change Labor's borrow and spend trajectory, would have been $667 billion over the next decade. Under the budget settings Labor left us, we would never have got to surplus and we would never have started to repay the debt.

There is both economic and moral virtue to changing course and putting the budget back onto a more secure and sustainable footing. But do not just accept the word of this government that it is important to repair the budget and to get to a point where the government is living within its means. The former Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister, the member for Lilley, in his budget speech in 2011 said that:

… meandering back to surplus—would compound the pressures in our economy and push up the cost of living for pensioners and working people.

In a doorstop interview on 8 May 2012, the member for Lilley also said that:

… coming back to surplus is about making sure we help those people sitting around the kitchen table when they're figuring out how they will make ends meet.

Again, those were wise words indeed from the member for Lilley. How in all conscience can the Labor Party express those sorts of sentiments about Australian families and then act totally contrary to the interests of those Australian families?

By way of contrast, the coalition's budget is about building a stronger economy. The measures we announced in the budget are responsible, measured, fair and entirely focused on building a strong and prosperous economy. Since the last election, our economy has created a quarter of a million new jobs, and the centrepiece of this budget is a plan to create even more local jobs. Jobs are now growing at about three times the pace they were under Labor. The coalition's 2015 budget reduces the small business company tax rate to its lowest in almost 50 years and, for two years, we are giving all small businesses an immediate tax deduction on any asset they buy costing up to $20,000. This will benefit more than 95 per cent of all Australian businesses.

The budget also delivers for families. Our Jobs for Families reform will deliver a simpler, more affordable and more accessible childcare system, giving parents more choice when it comes to balancing work and family. Low- and middle-income families will be $1,500 a year better off if they are using the childcare system. Families using child care in 2017 on family incomes of between $65,000 and $170,000 will be around $30 a week better off. The Abbott government's 2105 budget delivers for families, for small business and for our economy. It is responsible, measured and fair. It cuts taxes, creates local jobs and delivers a responsible path back to surplus.

This bill is actually a rare conjunction of usually dissenting parliamentary viewpoints. The coalition are wholeheartedly supporting Labor's former intentions. Yet, if I understand the position of those opposite, they are indignant that we are supporting their own budget measure. If Niccolo Machiavelli were alive today he could write a whole new chapter on that sort of Labor logic. Why wouldn't Labor members consider this bill as an olive branch of sorts? Disagreeing in politics is fine when we both have legitimate and different positions, but to do so when both sides strongly agree is internecine politics at its very worst.

Labor should not think we're trying to embarrass them with this bill. They need little, if any, help from us on that front! Rather, we are seeking, in a constructive spirit of bipartisanship, to help them help us help our fellow Australians. The passage of this bill would reflect well on the government and the opposition whilst also advantaging the taxpayer. If there is such a thing as a triple win in politics, this is it. I trust that this approach will not fall on deaf ears or that Labor, out of sheer pique, will not seek stubbornly to cut off their nose to spite their face. Either would be a great shame because, in the end, this bill offers great potential to benefit all Australians.

In conclusion, through its action on this bill the coalition are continuing our efforts to repair and sustain Australia's financial future. It is not an easy task; it is a mammoth task. I said before that we inherited $123 billion in cumulative deficit and debt on an extraordinary trajectory to $667 billion. It is a mammoth task which naturally calls upon the collective efforts of all of us in this House, as well as all Australians beyond it.

Equally, this process is a test of character for those opposite, who pledged to the Australian people to make this saving. I say to the opposition: 'If you do not like our savings, what are yours? What is your plan to restore the economic freedom of action of this country? What is your plan, and how are you going to pay for it?' The wider community rightfully expects the opposition to do what they said they would—nothing more and nothing less than what they promised.

The Labor Party, the Greens and Independent senators might not agree with everything in our budget or every policy announcement—I get that—but they must surely have heard, loud and clear, the message from Australia that our nation must live within its means. How do we live within our means when as a consequence of that concurrent spending, that spending across political cycles that was entrenched the during the Labor-Green years, we now borrow $100 million every day more than this country earns in revenue? To get the budget back under control and regain our economic freedom of action requires an effort on all sides of this parliament. If Labor disagree with this—their own budget savings measure, in the case of this bill—then what is their alternative? What is their alternative plan, and how will they pay for it? I commend this bill to the House.

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