Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. I remind the House that, the last time the Labor Party had a debt, it took the coalition to pay it off. Now the Labor Party has an even bigger debt which is going out all the way—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for North Sydney will resume his seat. The member for Blair has the call.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh, Mr Speaker!

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, my question is to the Minister for—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Blair will resume his seat.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, this is a very serious point of order. You have, over successive days, allowed the Prime Minister to wave posters around in this place which, we have pointed out to you on numerous occasions, is provoking the opposition. You are now, apparently, if I am correct, ruling out a question—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Sturt will resume his seat. Now hop up and do your stunt. I am ruling it out of order—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No! The member for North Sydney will resume his seat. I am ruling it out of order because, having just suggested that the actions that the member for North Sydney took yesterday were appropriate in inviting other members to assist him with a prop, is a blatant—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If you are suggesting that, yesterday, the passing of the papers that were to be tabled is akin to what you just did, I am surprised.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I respectfully suggest to you that I am using this prop to illustrate the matter that goes to the substance of my question—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, the member for North Sydney will resume his seat.

Fran Bailey (McEwen, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How is it different from yesterday?

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am about to explain to you, Member for McEwen. If we had been presented with each of those frames individually, there would have been no complaint.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Blair will resume his seat. The frames need to be shown one at a time.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Separated. I will give the member for North Sydney the call next after the member for Blair—it will let you prepare. Well, come on! We are not running a sideshow.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I think the ludicrousness of the situation has been amply demonstrated and I respectfully ask you to give the member for North Sydney the call to ask his question.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for North Sydney will come to his question now or he will lose the question.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I refer the Treasurer to the fact that the last time the Labor Party was in—

Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: you gave the call to the member for Blair. His call has been interrupted by a number of points of order, but he actually still had the call.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for North Sydney has the call.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I refer to the fact that, the last time the Labor Party was in government, the coalition had to pay off its debt after it left Australia with a burden of $96 billion. This time the Labor Party is in government again and the Labor Party is accruing debt on a massive scale as the biggest spending government in modern Australian history. The debt is getting bigger and bigger and bigger and redder and redder, just like the Deputy Prime Minister’s face. I ask the Treasurer: now that the Minister for Finance and Deregulation has said that simple mathematics explains how to pay off all of this Labor Party debt, will you now come clean with the Australian people about just how much debt you are really leaving Australians?

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Robert interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Fadden is warned!

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They can never get fired up about jobs in local communities. They can never get fired up about the people who are being cushioned against the global recession. What we just saw was the Hockey $300 billion debt. That is what we saw. He has admitted, and so has the Leader of the Opposition admitted, in the circumstances that this country finds itself in, that they would have to borrow as much as the government will have to borrow and they would not pay it off one day sooner. That is what they have confirmed, because if they are not confirming that, where is their alternative plan? What is the alternative fiscal policy? That is their alternative fiscal policy: a blank piece of paper. They have no alternative fiscal policy because they know that this government has had forced upon it, and this country has had forced upon it, a $210 billion revenue collapse. If they were going to do something different, what they would have to do is savagely increase taxes or savagely cut back services. They come into this House and will not nominate one saving they could make. What that means is that they would borrow every cent the government has borrowed and they would not pay it back one day sooner. They are complete frauds.