Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Given that the Treasurer has been contradicted by the New South Wales Liberal government on negative gearing, first argued there were excesses in negative gearing, then attacked Labor's reforms to negative gearing, then was rolled in cabinet when he himself argued for changes to negative gearing, and now does not know what negative gearing is, is it not plain this Treasurer is just incompetent?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member opposite for his question. This is the shadow Treasurer who, at the last election, thought the right plan for Australia was to increase the deficit—

Ms Burney interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Barton is warned.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by $16½ billion dollars. Under the budgets of those opposite, they had accumulated deficits of 16.9 per cent of GDP. That is what they delivered. We have kept that—under the six years of the budgets, both on the projections and the forecasts of what we have delivered—to less than 10 per cent, and we have a credible plan to bring that budget back to balance. And that is necessary for the very important reason of retaining Australia's AAA credit rating, as the agencies have warned, and they have warned this parliament that they need to support the measures that bring the budget back to balance.

The biggest threat to that sits opposite, in the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer. They talk about their proposals to hit middle income families who are engaged in negative gearing with higher taxes. That is what they do. They say that and they say that that is what is going to bring the budget back to balance. But they know it is not true because, on their own measures that they put to the last election, which included hitting those middle-income earners by abolishing the negative gearing opportunities they had, as well as increasing capital gains tax and abolishing the company tax plan that we put to the election; they still had a deficit that was $16½ billion higher.

This is a shadow Treasurer who either cannot count or thinks that the best way to improve the government's position is actually to have a higher deficit. Well, had he been the Treasurer today, the AAA credit rating would already be lost.