Chris Crewther (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the Assistant Minister for Finance for the fantastic job that he and the finance minister are continuing to do in working to reverse the damage done to Australia's financial situation by six years of Labor. It has been a long process and a difficult balancing act. While we have a responsibility to the Australian people to support necessary services, we also have a responsibility to appropriately manage what is really the Australian people's money. It is disappointing that not all in this place have the same respect for taxpayers' money, including funds that come from my own electorate of Dunkley. We have introduced a number of budget repair measures totalling over $41 billion. So my first question to the minister is: can the minister advise the chamber on the progress of the government's budget repair measures through the parliament? How much progress has the government made in passing unlegislated budget repair measures since the 2016 PFO?

Australians expect us to live within our means, and we have not done this in a long time. The past few years have been spent working towards getting the budget and the underlying cash deficit back on track. We're approaching the end of the financial year, and it is widely expected that the underlying cash deficit will have been lowered to $18.2 billion. This is a huge figure; however, this is expected to be the best budget outcome since the Howard government's last budget a decade ago. The size of government debt is not to be underestimated or dismissed; however, my constituents and I are delighted that progress is being made. My second question to the minister is: what is the estimated impact of measures that the government has implemented since the 2013 election, and can the minister please speak to some of the key measures that have contributed to this figure?

We cannot continue to borrow money to fund services that should be funded by the government as a matter of routine. That is why we are delivering a surplus in 2019-20, the first since we came to government in 2013—over a six-year period we have worked to undo six years of Labor—and the first since the last year of the Howard government in 2007, just before Labor came into government and brought the difficult financial circumstances they left for us in 2013. Compare our results to those opposite. I was five years old when Labor last delivered a surplus in government. The Berlin Wall was still standing. It was a difficult situation at the time around the world, but it was even more difficult being led by Labor, who have not delivered a surplus since that time.

It is our job to ensure that essential services like health and education can be funded through strong economic management and not by using borrowed money, so we can reduce our deficit to bring us back into a surplus and, therefore, reduce our debt. That means we're reducing our interest payments, and we will have more to spend on health and education. We cannot continue to borrow money forever. This is why it is crucial that we make sure that our spending is sustainable. This is exactly what the government's approach towards funding services has been. We have now reached the point where we no longer have to borrow to pay for routine government expenses, which was a situation Labor brought us to after the 2007 election, when you continued to put us into deficit, therefore increasing debt and therefore increasing the interest on our credit card payments.

In contrast, we have responsible economic management. That, unfortunately, is not something that could be guaranteed if those opposite were again in government. The strong economic management of the Howard era was torn to shreds by the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government. Had their spending not been reined in, Australia would have been at risk of losing its AAA credit rating from the major ratings agencies. The Treasurer, the assistant minister, the Minister for Finance and our government, led by the Prime Minister, have been responsible in managing the economy to ensure that we continue to retain that AAA credit rating. Even now, those opposite will try to write off the coalition government's successes since 2013, promising bigger, better tax cuts while pledging funding increases for every potential recipient that they can think of.

Minister, I am concerned that the only foreseeable way that Labor could do so would be to plunge us back into further debt, undoing all the hard work of the coalition and recklessly putting us back into a vulnerable position should we find ourselves facing the global difficulties of just over a decade ago. Considering what I have said, could the minister please also tell us more about the budget repair measures presented by the coalition and how these will get Australia back on track? Finally, can the minister outline the government's fiscal strategy and how the government is planning to achieve a sustainable budget position over the medium term?

See this speech in context