Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When we talk about the importance of economic policy, we do not do so because it is an innately interesting thing to do; we talk about it because getting the fundamentals right with the economy is about people. It is about providing the right framework for businesses to grow to employ people, for start-ups to occur and for industry to develop. It is about raising the standard of living and the prospects for the people for whom we govern and, in our nation of Australia, providing the best possible framework so that people can pursue their dreams, achieve a better standard of living and an easier way of life and have greater freedoms than their forebears had. So, when we read newspaper reports today that the government is planning to attack a very important part of the former Howard government's economic policy—planning for the future, making provision for the future—when we read that it is planning to raid the Future Fund to artificially prop up a return to surplus in the 2012-13 budget after years in the deficit wilderness, that is great cause for concern.

An Australian citizen usually has to establish a watertight case for economic hardship before authorities will even entertain allowing them to make a withdrawal from their super fund, but this government plans to use the Future Fund as its personal ATM to avoid unwanted scrutiny for failing to achieve yet another promise, the promise of future budget targets. Senator Wong, of course, denies all of this, yet the department for which she is responsible confirmed it with their answer to a question taken on notice. The fact is that the Treasurer and the Prime Minister cannot risk being exposed, yet again, for making yet another lie. Their personal egos and—

Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker, I raise a point of order. I ask that you ask the member for Indi to withdraw the word 'lie'.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Indi would assist the Main Committee if she withdrew that word 'lie'.

Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw the word 'lie', but the fact is that the Treasurer and the Prime Minister cannot be believed about absolutely any commitment, any promise, that they make. For the sake of their own reputation—whatever is left of it—they are trying to damage future Australians, the future economy, future budgets, by raiding the Future Fund. It is political expediency at its very worst and such a poor substitute, such a sneaky substitute, for good, difficult economic policies. We will not see those from this government.

Australians are not going to be hoodwinked into swallowing a budget that is artificially propped up by a government that is so fiscally irresponsible that it would rather borrow from itself than properly manage revenues and expenditures to achieve forecast outcomes. Setting the budget woes to one side, the impact on the Future Fund of making this reckless forecast of withdrawals could be devastating. It follows on from the dangerous precedent set in 2007 when the government cited use of the Future Fund to fund its ill-conceived National Broadband Network to the tune of $2.7 billion.

But it is no surprise that this government has resorted to these desperate measures when you consider its diabolical record of economic management. Let us look at net government debt. The Howard government was $29.2 billion in the black. The Rudd-Gillard government is $107 billion in the red. Net government worth was $46.7 billion in the black under the Howard government compared to $87.5 billion in the red under the Rudd-Gillard government. Long-term unemployment is up 73 per cent under this government, not to mention the unemployment rate, government expenses, annual GDP growth, inflation and any other important measure of economic progress and prosperity.

These figures can get overwhelming. Every day, if it is not another scandal, it is another statistic, another fact, that highlights the gross incompetence of the current regime. If there is only one figure people remember, let it be that this government is borrowing $135 million every day, or just under $1 billion a week. By 2014, taxpayers will be forking out almost $7½ billion a year to service the interest alone on the debt.

Whatever budgetary projections are made, whatever prospects the government say will be achieved, none of them are actually achieved. In November last year, we were told that the deficit for 2010-11 would be $41.5 billion. On budget night, it was revealed that this had blown out to $50 billion. The list goes on. Labor have been promising to return to surplus next year, something we know they will never do in an open and competent way. They will try to be sneaky with figures, try to raid the Future Fund and, I am sure, engage in whatever creative accounting they can.

When the last budget was handed down, the coalition warned that Labor's forecast surplus was based on unrealistic assumptions about the economy. It is clear now that Mr Swan has accepted that his surplus will never be achieved, changing it from a promise to the very sneaky phrase of 'an objective'. We see that this government is not just getting the fundamentals wrong; it cannot exercise basic sober, adult restraint when it comes to conning the Australian people with whatever its latest hobbyhorse is, whatever the spin masters have told it to put out there to the public.

We saw the government waste $12 million on advertising the carbon tax, before the legislation had even come to parliament, and almost $13 million advertising Kevin Rudd's now obsolete health reforms. It used taxpayers' money to make claims that it now says were not correct. It spent $38 million on Kevin Rudd's dumped mining tax. And, of course, we have had the disastrous failure of a nonpolicy with the dismantling of the Howard government's border protection policy and we now see not only failed border protection policies but other policies that have led to a $3 billion blow-out in Australia's detention centre network. The list goes on with $1½ billion wasted on the BER and $1.7 billion wasted on combustible pink batts, and, unfortunately, people are starting to get immune to the word 'billion'. If you blow out by a billion or two or three, that has become the accepted thing, the norm, under the current government. It is extraordinarily unacceptable and extraordinarily sad.

One of my favourite examples of a waste of money is this. At a time when the government wants to introduce a carbon tax—the only one of its type in the world—to impose yet another cost on Australian manufacturers, they find the time and inclination to allocate $24.25 million to the establishment of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions. When it comes to priorities and when so many Australians are doing it so hard to make ends meet and to make sure that they have a household budget that pays for life's essentials and makes sure they can get through to the next payday, it is a serious neglect of responsibility to see this government not only waste and mismanage basic programs and flagship programs but also deliberately waste money on such things as the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions. This is at the same time as they cannot find the energy or the inclination to have an inquiry into the state of manufacturing in this country and when the trade union movement is telling them that this is the worst crisis in manufacturing since the Depression. These are dark days for the Australian people and for the Australian economy. Now is not the time to introduce a carbon tax. (Time expired)