Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia is sitting on a Labor debt bomb. Yes, Australia went into debt during the pandemic, necessary debt to face a once-in-a-hundred-year pandemic challenge. But, since that time, Labor's addiction to spending has seen our debt grow and grow. This year it is going to top $1 trillion in gross debt, 34 per cent of our GDP. If you include the state and territory governments, the vast majority of which are Labor governments, you're looking at $1.6 trillion across Australia in gross debt.

Now, what does that mean for you? It's an obscure number; it's hard to relate to the impact on families. It means that the government is currently having to find $25 billion in your taxes just to fund the interest bill on that debt alone—$50,000 each and every day to fund the interest alone. And that is just going up and up. As interest rates rise, the amount you have to pay in tax goes up in interest repayments. It is estimated that the repayments over the next few years will increase to $40 billion every year to sustain Labor's addiction to spending. This is a failed budget full of tax increases because the Labor government is addicted to spending your money.