House debates
Thursday, 23 March 2017
Questions without Notice
Budget
2:33 pm
David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on how the government is acting to responsibly manage the budget on behalf of hardworking Australians? What barriers exist to the government's policies to bring the budget back to balance?
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I thank the member for Banks for his question. I acknowledge again the excellent work he has been doing as the chair of the House Standing Committee on Economics, and particularly in ensuring that the policies that the Prime Minister and I have been working on with the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services to ensure that banks are accountable in this country and the reforms we are putting in place for banks in this country will mean that Australians will be able to get a better deal at the end of the day. I thank him and his committee for their work.
The government is delivering on our plan to restore the budget to balance. Once again we have seen, just like we did last year, some $22 billion of budget improvement measures that we were able to implement after the election throughout the course of the back half of last year. Again, this week we have seen an omnibus bill that was designed to ensure that we could get the growth in welfare spending under control, something that taxpayer Australians desperately want to see. Eight out of 10 taxpayers go to work every day just to pay for the welfare bill in this country through their personal income tax—eight out of 10! Our bill was designed to ensure that we are going to rein in the growth in that welfare expenditure—an important task for the government. With no help from those opposite, no help from the Labor Party, who want to see taxpayers pay higher bills for welfare in this country—
Mr Burke interjecting—
On the interjection from the member opposite, I remind him I am talking about the omnibus bill which is being considered in this chamber right now.
Ms Macklin interjecting—
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
There was $6 billion worth of savings in that bill, the omnibus bill on social services, being considered in this parliament. Those opposite refused to support it. The government, through our negotiations with the crossbenchers in the upper house, in the Senate, has been able, through those measures passed and other arrangements we have been able to agree on, to see $4 billion of that $6 billion in savings realised. That is $4 billion. We were able to do that because this government just gets on with the job, despite the opposition from the Labor Party, who work against the budget being returned to surplus every single day of their existence. They are to budget management debates what a Twitter troll is to public policy in this country. They are like the pimply teenager sitting in their basement, trolling away daily, seeking to undermine and undercut the Australian taxpayer. We have been able to deliver those savings to the budget to ensure that we can pay for more-affordable child care for Australian families. It has been two years that we have been working to achieve this result, and the Labor Party has worked against working families every day and made sure that for two years they have had to pay a higher cost for child care, because the Labor Party simply refuse to understand that when you deliver services, you have to pay for them. This government has done the work to ensure that we can deliver affordable child care. (Time expired)
Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Batting up the order again, Jim? Batting at four?
2:36 pm
Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is to the Treasurer. If a deficit of $11 billion was a budget emergency in the 2014 budget, what does he call a deficit of $37 billion, which has more than tripled on his watch?
Ms Henderson interjecting—
Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Given this Treasurer has tripled the deficit, doesn't this just prove that the Treasurer is completely incompetent and hopelessly out of his depth?
Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member for Corangamite will cease interjecting. The member for Fadden is warned! The member for Hume. The Treasurer has the call.
2:37 pm
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The member opposite who asked the question used to work for the Treasurer of the Labor Party, when he was in government, who was supposed to deliver four surpluses—'I deliver tonight.' I have been looking for those surpluses. They were not there, Swany! I don't know where you left them. I looked in the cupboard. I looked everywhere but the surpluses were not there.
Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The Treasurer will resume his seat and the member for Moreton will resume his seat. I will deal with a number of matters here as efficiently as possible. The member for Shortland and the member for Gellibrand will leave the chamber, under standing order 94(a). The Treasurer has the call, and he will refer to members by their correct titles.
The member for Shortland and the member for Gellibrand then left the chamber.
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I will, Mr Speaker. I am referring to the member for Lilley, and the member for Rankin, who worked for the member for Lilley, will remember that it was the member for Lilley who supported reducing company tax. It was the member for Lilley who supported the idea of getting to surplus but was never done able to achieve it, despite declaring it had been achieved. The member for Rankin forgets that at the last election the Labor Party went to the Australian people and they said that the budget deficit should be $14 billion bigger than what the government was proposing.
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
So the member for Rankin, as he stood before the Australian people at the last election, said that the state of the nation's finances should be made worse. That was the policy he took to the last election. So the hypocrisy of the architect of the fiscal bonfire that they left this government to deal with would turn up with the matches still flipping out of their pockets, and the stench of the kerosene that they used to literally make the bonfire go even higher—to come here and ask this government that is restoring the budget to balance, while they sit opposite and oppose every single thing the government is seeking to do. That extends to the important work we have to do to grow our economy.
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
And it extends to their gross hypocrisy when it comes to opposing the government on company tax cuts they themselves have articulated for many years. The shadow Treasurer's book Hearts & Minds:A Blueprint for Modern Laboron company tax—
Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The Treasurer knows the rules on props in the chamber.
Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
He has lost his heart and he has lost his mind when it comes to this. It is published by Melbourne University Publishing. Do you know what their motto is? 'Books with spine'. You have lost yours, Shadow Treasurer.