Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Wong, what was the interest we were paying at that time? It was $8 billion. Senator Wong does not know that fact. Let us remind Senator Wong and the Labor members on the other side that that is how much it was. What we are doing with that money now is spending it on essential services. We are spending it on health, education, security and defence—on things that are important to everyday Australians. And that $8 billion was going into a big black hole under Labor 10 years ago.

Here we are, we have delivered a budget and the Labor Party are accusing us of spending too much and putting pressure on interest rates. We have delivered a $10 billion surplus—not only this year but next year, the year after and the year after that. That is about one per cent of GDP. What do the experts say about the impact on Australian families? Do they say that it will put upward pressure on interest rates? I want to quote to you from Terry McCrann and what he had to say. He said:

One big question: will the tax cuts put pressure on interest rates? Answer, an emphatic no.

Alan Wood, in today’s Australian, had this to say:

... the question du jour yesterday was: wouldn’t all this tax cutting and spending force the Reserve Bank to put up interest rates again?

The answer is an unequivocal no.

So you can see that Labor have missed the point. They are chasing a red herring. The Labor Party talk about petrol prices and interest rates going up and, of course, these so-called extreme industrial relations changes. That is all they can come up with. But, when you talk to the experts, they say: ‘No, Labor Party, you’re wrong. The government’s actually got it right. They’ve got the balance right.’ It is in fact a remarkable result for Australian families, for working men and women.

Let us look at some of the benefits for older Australians. I am particularly proud of the initiative for carers of people with disabilities. That is tremendous: an additional one-off $1,000 payment prior to 30 June this year and a one-off $600 payment for recipients of the carer allowance. On top of that, Senator Evans talked about what we were doing for the aged care pensioners. Of course, you have the $100 utilities allowance. What does that cost the taxpayer? It is $173 million paid by 30 June this year. This is something that people were not planning for. This is good news—to pay the power bill, to help with miscellaneous expenses in and around the home. That is what we are doing. We are caring for older Australians. We are caring for families. There was an attack on the government from the Tasmanian Treasurer, who said that we are not spending enough on hospitals. Goodness gracious me! It is in the budget. It is a $220 million increase in Tasmania, and he has denied that that is— (Time expired)