Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Would the Treasurer inform the House of the importance of paying off government debt and planning Australia’s long-term response to the ageing of the population? Are there any threats to this plan?

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Stirling for his question. As members of this House know, when this government was elected the Commonwealth government owed $96 billion worth of debt. Try as it might the Australian Labor Party had no plan whatsoever to free Australia from that crushing burden of debt. It sold off Qantas, it sold off the Commonwealth Bank and spent every last dollar but it still could not balance its budget and it borrowed in addition.

This government through tireless hard work has now cleared Australia of $96 billion worth of debt. We have given an opportunity to future generations that will not have to pay the Labor Party debt. They will not have to pay back the capital and they will not have to service the interest. This government has gone further. We have established the Future Fund to try and begin to prepare Australia for the great economic challenge of the future—the ageing of the population. That Future Fund is well on its way to meeting the Commonwealth liability, currently $101 billion in respect of superannuation.

All of this is under threat in what I regard as the most irresponsible economic announcement of the last 11 years made today by Labor. The Labor Party has announced that, if it gets elected, it is going to raid the Future Fund, steal from the future and make sure that Australia, when it comes to face the ageing of the population, is not provisioned properly, so that in a shabby little deal this Leader of the Opposition—who never had the wit to establish a Future Fund—can try and buy some votes. This is shameful economic vandalism. Let me make this point: to steal from the Future Fund as the Leader of the Opposition wants to do, he will have to change legislation and he will have to defy the guardians. Let me tell you this: once that Future Fund is open, it is open for all purposes. The only losers will be future generations of Australians.

The IMF in its most recent statement on Australia said that the establishment of the Future Fund means that Australia is well placed to face the challenge of the ageing population. The raiding of the Future Fund means that Australia will not be placed in a way which can face the ageing of the population.

In case you had any doubt as to how bad this fund was, up until now the Labor Party has promised that the Future Fund would always be a locked box. In fact, the Labor Party has complained that this box is not locked enough. The member for Lilley, in a doorstop interview on 15 August 2005, said this:

... we have no guarantee this will be a Future Fund which is a locked box. It will be another pork-barrelling institution. We’ve seen from the past that these funds have been raided for base National Party ... interests ...

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If you’re going to have a Future Fund it has to be a locked box.

Mr Speaker, let me tell you what it is going to be raided for. It is going to be raided for the base political instincts of the Labor Party; that is what it is going to be raided for. We had an announcement today that this Leader of the Opposition is going to raid the Future Fund for $2 billion in the first instalment. Once the legislation is changed so the fund can be raided, it can be raided for all purposes—and the hunger of the Labor Party for its base political instincts will not stop at $2 billion.

The member for Lilley has suffered a humiliating defeat today. After complaining that he wanted the Future Fund to be more of a locked box, his leader has gone on a smash-and-grab raid, smashed the glass, taken the key, opened the fund and announced a plan to spend the money. This is absolutely irresponsible. Labor never had the wit to pay off debt, Labor never had the wit to fund superannuation, Labor never had an idea about establishing a future fund and now Labor wants to steal from the future of Australians. If people want to know why they can’t have Labor entrusted with money, this proves it. You cannot trust the Labor Party with money.