Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I always enjoy Senator Furner's contributions. They are always considered—even if somewhat misguided. Let's just draw the broader picture of the budget. Let's give a little bit of context. At present as a proportion of debt to GDP, this nation is at about 14 per cent. Senator Furner is right—at least in this respect—that that is nothing shocking when looking at most of the OECD. That is true. The problem is not the amount; the problem is the trajectory of government debt. Funding Labor's future promises is the problem.

It is as simple as this: if we were to do nothing it would get so much worse. If we did nothing about the education funding, the Gonski funding, the NBN, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the indexation of welfare and so forth the problem would be that government debt would rise and rise and rise.

Senator Conroy interjecting—

The trajectory is like this, Senator Conroy: under your government, public debt in this country would have trebled in nine years. The steepest trajectory in the developed world is what that lot left us—the steepest trajectory of public debt in the entire developed world. It will treble within nine years. Debt will be at $667 billion and interest payments will be about $3 billion a month. On current projections, within a decade, every man, every woman and every child in this country will be in debt to the tune of $25,000. That is on their projections. That is if we do nothing. For an average family, that is about $100,000 for each family within nine years—virtually no time at all.

But, of course, Labor would be happy. Labor would be delighted, because at long last they would have achieved their great ambition—a public sector that eats up more and more of the national wealth. Labor would love that—government which decides, government which increasingly decides who are the new rent seekers, the new spivs, the new carpetbaggers and the new cronies they will play to. They love that. They want to be just like Western Europe. What a prognosis for a successful future! The Labor Party would finally get what they want—a little bit of Western Europe in South-East Asia. Wouldn't they love that! They would finally get what they want. What sort of prognosis is that for Australia's future? In the fastest developing part of the world, with the economies that are growing the fastest, we would have an economy something like a sclerotic economy, something like Western Europe—and it would happen within nine years.

That is the legacy of this lot, and they sit here and talk about fairness. I accept that Australians are being asked to give. That is true. And I suspect that there is some pain. But any difficulties, any pain, any complaints from anyone in this country will be nothing compared to the sacrifice that will have to be made in just nine short years if we do not fix this problem now. That is the problem that confronts this country. Is there some difficulty? Is there some pain right now? Yes, there is, but if we do not fix this problem it will be so much worse within three terms of parliament. That is all it is. On their figures, they have forecast $667 billion of debt within nine years.

We do not even know any more whether Labor believe in balancing the budget. Mr Swan used to talk the talk though he could never walk the walk, but at least he said he believed in balancing the budget. When was the last time you heard Mr Shorten or Mr Bowen say they believe in balancing the budget, that they believe that generations should live within their means? When is the last time you heard that? They will all talk about, 'We should just go for broke'—which of course is economic surrender. I have heard 'Go for broke' spoken in French. I have heard 'Go for broke' spoken in Portuguese. I have heard 'Go for broke' spoken in Icelandic.' I have heard 'Go for broke' spoken in Greek. Do you know why? Because it is always a surrender. It is always said in Greek: 'When you have got nothing to offer, go for broke.'