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

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the comments of Mr Paul Bloxham, until recently a senior Reserve Bank economist and now HSBC chief economist, who says:

By choosing not to tighten fiscal policy sooner, the government has implicitly chosen higher interest rates than might otherwise have been the case.

Given the Gillard government is borrowing $100 million a day to fund its spending and given that mortgage interest rates have been higher on average under three years of Labor than under 12 years of the coalition in government, is this government just going from bad to worse?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the shadow Treasurer for his question. I am not sure that the shadow Treasurer is in a position to be lecturing people about fiscal consolidation given the $11 billion black hole the Liberal Party was responsible for in its election costings. What was most remarkable about that $11 billion black hole is that the shadow Treasurer thought it was okay for him, as shadow Treasurer, to say, ‘I never really had a look at the costings.’ That was his excuse—as revealed in the newspaper. It should have been a story on page 1 that a journalist should have won a Walkley award for. It is the revelation of this year that the man who wanted to be Treasurer of this country did not even study his party’s costings during the election campaign and allowed an $11 billion black hole to be produced under his very nose. So we will not be lectured on fiscal consolidation from an $11 billion black hole man.

Secondly, amnesia has broken out in a truly worrying way in the opposition today. It reminds me of a section of the book One hundred years of solitude and the curse of collective amnesia. Those opposite are forgetting everything. The shadow Treasurer has apparently forgotten that under the Howard government of which he was a member we saw interest rate rise after interest rate rise. What was most worrying about that of course was that it was the complete reverse of what the Liberal Party had taken to the election and promised Australians. They stood next to slogans that said, ‘Keeping interest rates at record lows,’ and then they got into government and Australians felt the pressure of interest rate rise after interest rate rise. What is amazing about the shadow Treasurer’s approach to economic management is that at each critical decision-making point over the last three years he has misread the situation. He misread the global financial crisis. He misread the need for economic stimulus. Now he is misreading what the government is doing on fiscal consolidation.

As we go about the task of fiscal consolidation, which is not easy—and building on the fact that we have delivered $80 billion in savings over the budgets that the government have produced—we are thwarted every step of the way by the opposition, who consistently stop savings measures without any regard to the costings in the budget. That is the history of the shadow Treasurer’s performance.

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

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. After over three minutes, the Prime Minister has not talked about her agenda; she has talked about what she claims to be ours. I ask her to be relevant to the question.

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

What is your fiscal policy?

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

$50 billion of cuts, you dope.

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

Mr Swan interjecting

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

What do you think they are?

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

Mr Swan interjecting

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

You are too gutless; insipidly weak.

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

Order! The member for North Sydney and the Deputy Prime Minister are warned! The member for North Sydney will withdraw. It was not a term of affection, but he will withdraw it.

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

What did I say? Insipidly weak?

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

No, the member knows what he said.

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

I don’t. Okay, I withdraw.

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

There is no need to repeat it.

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

Sorry, I thought it was ‘insipidly weak’, but it was obviously ‘dope’.

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

Regrettably, these displays often lack some discipline. People seem to forget what they have been saying in these exchanges which then brings the whole House into disrepute.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop interjecting

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

Order! I think it does, member for Mackellar. The Prime Minister will be directly relevant to the question. ‘Direct relevance’ is not talking about the person who asks the question and the remarks must be related to the question. Again, I say to the whole House that if the standing orders had been changed whereby the same rules applied to answers that applied to questions, especially about debate, I think the point about ‘direct relevance’ might have been solved. It has not been solved, but that would be a much easier way of bringing it to a true question and answer session as a build-up for other events that should be more important in the daily workings of the House.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I was asked about the government’s budget strategy. Our budget strategy is abiding by our rules, undertaking the biggest fiscal consolidation since the 1960s and bringing the budget to surplus in 2012-13. We are obviously confronted by obstacles. One of those obstacles is the opposition’s inability to embrace a savings measure in this parliament because of their cheap populism and lack of strategy. Despite that obstacle, we will deliver the fiscal consolidation we have promised and we will bring the budget to surplus in 2012-13 as promised. And, of course, we will not take any advice from the creators of $11 billion black holes as we go about that work.