David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

The appropriation bills before us today authorise government spending next year. They indicate how the government plans to spend taxpayer funds. My problem with them is that they show annual government spending will set a new record. Spending once again outstrips revenue, meaning we are continuing to fail to live within our means and that we are getting deeper into debt and continuing a decade-long run of deficits. Because of that I oppose these bills.

These appropriation bills also authorise an additional $7.9 billion of spending in the current financial year. Just to remind everyone: there are only five days left to run in this financial year. That's extra spending of $1.5 billion a day. Over the next five days Canberrans will be rolling in cash and Canberrans will proclaim, 'There's never been a better time to be a public servant.'

The government is scheduling a lot of its discretionary spending this financial year, rather than later, so that it can claim to be reducing discretionary spending over the next four years. This is fraudulent, and the Minister for Finance knows it. This government is a big-spending government, and no creative accounting can hide it. As I outlined in my alternative budget, published in the Australian Financial Review, there are plenty of options to cut spending. Cut the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities, the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, the Department of the Environment and Energy, the Department of Communications and the Arts. Cut the Australia Council for the Arts and the Sports Commission. Cut Austrade and Tourism Australia. Cut the Workplace Gender Equality Agency and Indigenous Business Australia. Cut spending on research and cut spending on foreign aid. The government could do all this in the budget bills and not have to worry about Senate obstruction. If the government did this, it could repeat the successful political tactics we saw last week.

Last week the government convinced the Senate that it was fiscally responsible to pass small, personal income tax cuts. These personal income tax cuts are now law, and the Labor opposition, unless it's prepared to accept them, now needs to campaign to raise personal tax rates at the next election. This has boosted the government's re-election prospects quite considerably, in my view.

If the government were to cut spending, it could convince the Senate that it was fiscally responsible to pass still more tax cuts. It could cut taxes on fuel and cars, alcohol and tobacco, tampons and sanitary pads, and electricity and imports. The Labor opposition would then need to campaign to raise taxes on the products that everyday Australians buy. This is a political opportunity that the government should realise is too good to miss. Unfortunately, it seems willing to miss it, because the government's big spending continues in the appropriation bills before us today. But it's not too late. It could improve its political future enormously by stealing the low-spending, low-taxing policies of the Liberal Democrats. I'd be delighted if it did.