Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There has obviously been a strategy being worked by the opposition, where every speaker suddenly has this passion about higher education. But the debt levels that they talk about are debt levels on a very few number of people. What about those children that are being born right now today and into the future who will be saddled with the debt that was imposed by that side of parliament? What about those people? This country used to run in the black. This country used to be run responsibly. We had surpluses, we had no net debt. Future generations have been betrayed by that side of parliament due to their largesse, due to their borrowing and throwing money out the door. The Labor Party side has never been responsible. Someone has to step up and make the right decisions now. I do not want children in my area having to pay back the debt generated by the Labor Party and not even have any of the benefits of what was given out—those $900 cheques that were also very good for Harvey Norman and did not go anywhere near those schools they were meant to be in aid of. What about those people? Children are going to be living with the legacy—the terrible traditions and history of the Labor Party—for years to come. Someone has got to clean it up and we as the government are getting on with that job.