Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sometimes it is worth reflecting on in this House that as representatives of the Australian people we have a responsibility to ensure we are informing our constituents and the broader Australian community about the limits of government and what governments are actually capable of providing or not providing. When I am in my electorate meeting with local residents, I try to make a point of ensuring that I cover off on constituents' concerns in relation to what we are doing as a government to get the budget back under control. We as a government have chosen to act with maturity to make the tough decisions now—to make the decisions that may be unpopular and cause some short-term pain for the long-term gain of this great country.

We have been left with the mighty task of cleaning up the mess after six years of waste and mismanagement at the hands of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments. It is no thanks to the actions of the former government that we are at a point now where approximately 50 per cent of Australians pay little, if any, income tax once government benefits are taken into account. The reverse of that situation is that the top 10 per cent of income earners now pay approximately 45 per cent or more of all income tax.

Madam Speaker, you might ask the question: why is this important? It is important because we face a demographic problem. We have an ageing population. Today there are five people in the workforce for every one retiree. Of those retirees, eight out of 10 receive a part or a full pension. Of the 20 per cent that do not, 12 per cent still receive some kind of assistance with health costs through the health care card. So, only eight per cent of our current retiree population is genuinely self-sufficient—eight per cent, and that is after a generation of compulsory superannuation.

Let's fast forward 50 years—or not even that; let's fast forward to the middle of this century, when there will be three people in the workforce for every one who is retired. Under current policy settings, guess how many of those retirees are receiving a part or a full pension? It is approximately 80 per cent. Around 11 per cent will be eligible for some sort of health care card—and this is after three generations of compulsory superannuation. The picture that we have now will not change by mid-century, yet we know that in the decade commencing 2020 it is estimated that there will only be some 100,000 new entrants into the labour market for an entire decade. This compares to 2004, when there were 125,000 entrants into the labour market in one year alone. I think this paints a stark picture of why we need to make long-term decisions to ensure that we have an economy that is productive, efficient, competitive and able to create wealth and income that we will need as a nation in the future to sustain our living standards. As I said, higher life expectancy and a falling birth rate are increasing the proportion of elderly people across the country. We need to ensure that we are able to have a welfare system that provides the pensions, health care and age care that people have come to expect.

As a responsible government, we have to get our finances in order to ensure that we can provide for the future generations of Australians to come. History is a wonderful teacher in this regard. These are the wise words of Cicero, some 2,600 years ago:

The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

To conclude, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the efforts of the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the cabinet for the professionalism they have shown in these challenging times. Our focus continues to be on building a strong economy to ensure that people have jobs and the government has the revenue— (Time expired)