Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Finance, Senator Cormann. I ask: can the minister inform the Senate why it was necessary to establish a Commission of Audit and to explain its importance to my constituents in the state of Western Australia?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Back for that question. We needed to establish a Commission of Audit because, after six years of Labor waste and mismanagement, our budget was in a mess. We needed to establish a Commission of Audit because we inherited $123 billion worth of projected deficits because of Labor. Labor is very touchy about this, because they know they left a budget in a mess behind.

The budget that we inherited of government debt, heading for $667 billion without corrective action. No doubt that is why Senator Wong has turned herself around, because she is so embarrassed about being confronted with her dismal track record. We took $42 billion worth of sensible savings to the last election but, given the state the budget is in, of course we have to build on that. That is why we have asked the Commission of Audit to look right across government for opportunities to ensure that government spending is as efficient and as well targeted as possible.

Senator Back asked: why is that important to the good people of Western Australia? The reason it is important to the good people of Western Australia is that, whenever governments in Canberra cannot live within their means, the Labor Party will always come up with another tax to target Western Australia. That is what they did with the mining tax and that is what they did with the tax on the North West Shelf gas project. Whenever the Labor Party was running out of cash, they looked to Western Australia to use them as a cash cow for their wasteful spending here out of Canberra yet again.

We have asked the Commission of Audit to look across government and to look for opportunities for efficiencies. They have presented their first report to us. It is a report to government, which we are considering as part of our budget preparations, and the budget will be released on the second Tuesday in May.

Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for his response. Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I ask: can the minister inform the Senate of any precedents when it comes to the public release of reports to government, such as the Henry tax review?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of an interview by David Speers on Sky with the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator Wong. David Speers asked Senator Wong this question: 'Remind me again: why didn't Labor put out the Henry tax review when you got it?' This is what Senator Wong had to say: 'I think we put it out—was it three or four months later? I can't recall.'

Let me assist Senator Wong. The government that she was a part of received the Henry tax review on 23 December 2009 and released it on 2 May 2010. That was a week or so before the budget. To be very specific, that was four months and 11 days later. Mr Speers then asked the obvious question: 'So why did you sit on it that long?' This is what Senator Wong had to say yesterday: 'Probably because we were considering it.' Guess what? We are considering the Commission of Audit report as we are putting the budget together! (Time expired)

Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. I ask: can the minister inform the Senate of the government's intentions with respect to the Commission of Audit report?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government's intention is to consider it. We are right now considering the Commission of Audit report as a report to government, as we are making judgements in relation to putting the budget together, which will be brought down by the Treasurer on the second Tuesday in May. What I can say to Senator Wong and to the Senate is that we will be releasing it in a time frame well short of the time frame used by the previous government, when they sat on the Henry tax review report for four months and 11 days.

We will do what we have always said we will do. We will release the Commission of Audit report in the context of the budget, as we said we would do. The Labor Party have got no credibility on this. They left the budget in a mess. We are setting out to repair the budget. We are doing it through an orderly, methodical and careful process. We will continue to do it professionally and we will release all of the information in good time, in the context of the next budget. (Time expired)