Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In 2007 Labor won government on promises for the future—so many promises. Promises of fiscal conservatism, promises of fairness, promises of a better future for all Australians—how this government has fallen short! And the wheels started coming off even before the excuse of the GFC reared its ugly head. How many people remember rising interest rates to combat rising inflation and a Treasurer clearly out of his depth? How long ago and how many government stuff ups ago was this? But Labor's broken promises continued. The GFC hit and the government almost had an excuse for economic ineptitude. The fact is that some stimulus was required at the time to maintain Australia's confidence in the economy. This is why the coalition agreed to and supported the first tranche of the stimulus package.

However, after that first reaction a competent government, a government that lived by its own falsely adopted motto of fiscal conservatism, would have let the Reserve Bank work on interest rates. Almost uniquely in the developed world at the time, Australia had a relatively high interest rate. We were fortunate enough to have the working room for reductions in interest rates—reductions that would have had a similar effect to additional stimulus—and Australians paying less interest on their home loans would have been left more money to spend boosting our economy. This would have obviated the necessity for massive borrowings, massive debt and massive, massive repayments. But the intellects opposite, those who campaigned as fiscal conservatives in both the 2007 and 2010 elections, decided on more and more stimulus, resulting in God knows how many botched projects and programs, and government borrowing crowding the market and putting upward pressure on interest rates—and those projects and programs!

Another day, another Labor stuff-up—these have not only continued but even increased in frequency of late. School halls and canteens—a blow-out—were supplied at the cost of an average family home and built to a single design, regardless of the need or desire of the individual schools. Pink batts—a blow-out—were put in roofs by incompetent, untrained installers. This resulted in deaths; a lack of confidence in the industry; removal of batts, costing more billions; and the destruction of an industry and of reputable businesses which, in some cases, had been around for decades. Solar homes—another blow-out—had rebate arrangements that the average pure maths professor would struggle to comprehend, leaving room for rorts, cons and, again, shoddy workmanship.

Then came a new Prime Minister and the light of the Gillard government—or so it was thought. Instead came promises not only broken but reversed. People will accept sometimes that an assurance of government cannot be kept. But Australians will not wear, after a promise that something would not be done, being forced to stomach a cynical backflip. Enter the carbon tax, the one the PM and the Treasurer promised they would not implement. Indeed, suggestions that the tax would be introduced were dismissed as hysterical. This sort of treatment of the electorate cannot be excused. What a shameful lack of ethics and morality! This is Labor's legacy—waste and reckless spending. Add the mining tax, the carbon tax, the cancellation of the cut to the company tax rate and myriad other hits on business to redistribute income. In the business world—the real world, that is—few of this government's policies, programs, subsidies and handouts would pass an honest cost-benefit analysis.

Julia Gillard broke her solemn promise, set out in the 2009 defence white paper, to increase defence spending by three per cent in real terms until 2017-18. This ludicrous compromise of Australia's national defence and security is an affront to our national sovereignty for the sake of a paper stimulus which will likely never see the stamp of the Governor-General. It is a tough argument to make—that spending priorities the Prime Minister is determined to protect are really so critical.

A wealth redistribution bent is being manifested in all Gillard government policies—quick-fix tax grabs to plug budget black holes and pay for ideological policies. To the detriment of all Australians, it is now only political reality which matters to the Gillard government. At the moment we are seeing an influx of more Labor policies driven by myopia—short-term electoral gain for long-term national pain. Look no further than last week's pitch to GetUp! and the Greens in the legislation changing our approach to the management of our fisheries.

With the recent announcements of a national dental initiative, increased foreign aid, border protection blow-outs and an unabashed commitment to a portly public service, there is little chance that this balloon of debt has yet to reach its summit. Forecast commodity prices do little to allay the fears of the coalition. Labor squanders all that it is afforded—hard-earned tax revenue is wasted and record terms of trade are turned to red. The terms of trade rose by 20.6 per cent in 2010-11, yet Labor ran a deficit of almost $48 billion that year and followed in 2011-12 with a $44.4 billion deficit, despite the terms of trade rising even further over the year. This outlook leaves our budget with no coherent economic strategy to drive growth in the economy, to lift productivity or to create jobs. With falling revenue growth, sharp falls in key commodity prices—iron ore prices, for example, are hovering below $100 a tonne, down from their highs of around $150 a tonne—and a sharp increase in Labor's social spending agenda, surely the budget forecast the Treasury is shopping around the press gallery is a pipedream at best.

Border protection tops the list of spending disasters this month, with spending four times the amount budgeted for this policy—an immigration and humanitarian disaster. A prudent, fiscally responsible government would see the unsustainability of this growing big black hole of debt and act to fix the problem by addressing revenue growth and, more importantly, taking an axe to spending. Instead, this government has thrown caution to the wind and is announcing grand social policies without a thought to who will pay for them. Their new dental scheme and a rushed announcement on Gonski followed the NDIS announcements—all unfunded. The National Disability Insurance Scheme is estimated to need an extra $10.5 billion annually within six years and nearly $50 billion in total by the end of the decade. There is the $4 billion for the dental care system and the $5 billion annually for education that was recommended by Gonski. The government has run out of its own money or has borrowed money to spend, so it is now pushing to spend the money of state governments. In the weeks and months to come, the Treasurer will give another ironclad guarantee on the surplus. MYEFO will see another bevy of figures sold as gospel to the electorate but, while funding vacuums like the NBN remain off-budget and $120 billion of policies remain on the table without revenue streams to match, any figures presented by this government, let alone surpluses, are manipulated at best. What a disaster.

No wonder the spending fantasies of the current media cycle are a much more convenient focus. Labor's weakness at fiscal rectitude and budgetary constraint is costing Australia. To the detriment of our nation, Labor has a philosophical downfall with regard to budget deficits. Hawke, Keating, Gillard and co were all happy to charge into government with coalition coffers brimming with surpluses only to spend with ignorance and abandon, not until all the money has gone but until we are servicing structural debt that is immobilising Australia.

Before the 2010 election, Labor told us that the 2011-12 deficit would be $10 billion. By May 2011, the Treasurer admitted that the forecast had blown out to $22.6 billion and by November 2011, cursed by the shadow Treasurer, they reluctantly confirmed that the blow-out had reached $37.1 billion. Just four months ago, Labor trumpeted without missing a note that the deficit would actually be $44.4 billion—a cumulative debt of $174 billion.

Building a stronger economy is the foundation of the coalition's positive agenda for building a better Australia. All we know is how to expand the economic opportunity for all. When I speak to my constituents they say to me, 'If only this government were as good as us.' They mean it. They know we can do better, and we can. The coalition and I reject this government's broken politics. Australians want a government that can deliver an economic strategy to build a stronger Australia, reduce cost-of-living pressures and create secure jobs. The coalition offers this choice.