Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to ask the minister: does he think that, since we are seeing such concern from the Labor members about debt, the concern that they are showing today, it is possible that they may join with the coalition and they may help to approve some expenditure cuts? Do you think that is possible, Minister, or will we see the continuation of the reckless approach of Labor in continuing to block everything that the coalition tries to do to bring our budget back into balance?

I would also ask you, Minister: can you tell us about the risks to the economy if we go down Labor's track and maintain an internationally uncompetitive corporate tax rate? What risks are there to investment flows into Australia if we have a 30 per cent rate of corporate tax but the US go down to 15 per cent and the UK is at 20 per cent? What risks are there to our economy from that? I also ask you: if we have, combining with that, a personal rate of marginal tax that the Labor Party want, a top rate of 49½ per cent, what risk does that have for our international competitiveness? And what risk does it have if we go down Labor's track with energy, where they want a 50 per cent renewable energy target, giving us some of the highest costs for energy in the world? How are we going to have a competitive economy in the years ahead if we go down that trilemma of Labor's: uncompetitive rates of corporate tax, uncompetitive top rates of marginal tax and uncompetitive electricity prices? What is the future for our nation if we do that?

I would also like to ask you about the issue of housing affordability. We hear Labor talk about how they want to abolish negative gearing. Are there any historical precedents—what happened when we previously abolished negative gearing? What happened to the rental markets in Sydney? What happened to the rental markets in Melbourne? Perhaps you could explain why, if this is the magic bullet that Labor suggests, we are seeing some markets with such large increases in housing prices and other markets with decreases, when we have the same negative gearing policies across the nation.

Also, Minister, you may like to comment on the rate of interest that this government has to pay on the debt that it inherited from Labor. How much is that? How much is that going forward? How is that financed, Minister, and what are the Labor Party actually doing to assist the coalition to try and bring the debt that we have under control? If we could have some discussion on those things—because we have heard some wonderfully eloquent speeches by Labor members about their concern about the debt to date, and we share those concerns. So we would hope that, in the weeks and months and years to come, it is possible that we could see the Labor Party join hands with us and work together.

The other thing, Minister, is: can you also please advise us how the government is using efficiency dividends to ensure that Australian taxpayers will actually receive value for money from all governments and their departments? Minister, with any time left, is this possible?

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