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

My question is to the Treasurer. Gross debt is at record half a trillion dollars under this government. Why is the Treasurer giving away at least $11 million in public debt interest in the first year alone, as a result of the government transferring almost half a billion dollars in taxpayers' money to a small private foundation in a closed-door meeting with the Prime Minister?

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

I could ask of the shadow Treasurer this: why did their government give money to dead people and pets and all of these things? But he has asked the question. I also want to know what the Labor Party has got against Nemo! This is a government that has invested half a billion dollars in saving the reef. The minister brought forward a proposal to save the reef. It was not just to save the reef but to work in partnership with others outside of this building and outside of government to save the reef. Maybe the Labor Party thinks the Australian people are like Dory: they just forget everything. They think they will forget that it was the shadow Treasurer, when he was the immigration minister, who racked up $11½ billion in additional deficits because he can't control the borders. They think they will forget grocery watch, they will forget fuel watch, they will forget Cash for Clunkers or they will forget the economic record of the member for Lilley—but they won't.

What we have done on the Great Barrier Reef is creating jobs on the reef up there. The member for Leichhardt knows all about that. The member for Capricornia knows all about that. The member for Herbert is hiding under the desk when we talk about the Great Barrier Reef, because they know that this government has gone out there and invested in the future of the reef. We think it's the right thing to do that in partnership with others out there in the community who are working to do the same thing. The Labor Party think all of the answers reside only in sitting around public service desks and sitting in government buildings. Maybe that's why the member for Rankin wants to put up taxes so that we can have more and more public servants. His great idea is to increase efficiency by abolishing the efficiency dividend. That's the genius of the member for Rankin.

We know that they want to increase taxes for one simple reason: they want more desks in Canberra, not more desks in schools. They want a bigger Public Service. It'll go back to the ballooning Public Service we've seen in Victoria and in Queensland. They cannot control their spending. This is a government that has invested half a billion dollars, and the shadow Treasurer wants to deny them the extra $11 million that comes from them being able to invest that money into more success on the reef. This government makes no apologies for (1) investing in the reef and (2) doing it in partnership. That was the proposal. That was the deal. That's what we put in the budget. That's what the member for Sydney welcomed on the night, but maybe she has a memory like Dory as well.