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

We have to get government under control. Government is a result of politicians with no principles, public servants whose first principle is to look after their own careers and a legacy of policies and programs introduced long ago for reasons no-one remembers. We have to start asking, 'Why does government do that?' and, 'Can't that be done by people using their own money?'

My frustration at restrictions on our ability just to live our lives and make our own decisions without being harassed by governments supposed to serve us is what motivated me to get into politics. I definitely didn't do it for fun or to make money. If we were free to go about our business and make our own decisions, paying for these decisions from our own pockets, we'd be better off, both individually and collectively. Individually, we'd be masters of our own futures, and, collectively, we'd form communities of choice rather than forced association.

Most of us could look after our own health care, education and child care in a way that we individually prefer, not the way the government dictates. There would be more money in our pockets, greater respect for privacy and more time to spend with loved ones. There would also be more money to look after the genuinely unfortunate—those who actually do need a hand up rather than those who demand, and too often are given, a handout.

What concerns me is that younger Australians won't even have the freedom I had to establish a business or to pursue their dreams more broadly. Maddening bureaucracy makes it difficult to focus on your craft and your customers. Punitive workplace regulations make it difficult to hire staff. Crippling taxes make you question whether it's all worth it. And the option of a cushy Public Service job, or even welfare, further reduces your motivation.

With the government providing more and more of our needs, even though we need government less and less, given widespread economic growth and prosperity, younger Australians are being left with the heavy debt my generation has placed on them. We've been borrowing to spend rather than invest. This has been going on under Labor and Liberal governments alike; there is hardly any difference between the two.

The Liberal Democrats' mantra of personal responsibility and living within our means reflects the interests of all Australians: the Indigenous and the migrants, the black and white, the latte sipping and the beer chugging. None of us is served by a fawning monster of a government, and with government out of the way much of the antagonism between different groups in Australian society can fall away. I don't mind what the guy next door is doing because I'm not paying for it. My government doesn't need to ban what they're doing, and they don't need to ban what I'm doing.

The Liberal Democrats will keep fighting for the good, because the alternative is selling out your principles, as the major parties did long ago. It's clearly a recipe for disastrous government and voter contempt. To those voters who continue to vote for a major party: please wake up and start using your votes smartly. Government can't be fixed by those who broke it; it can only be fixed by outsiders with a coherent vision of a better way. We can do so much better, not through more government but through less.