Mr CAUSLEY —My question is directed to the Treasurer. Treasurer, can you advise the House as to the level of Commonwealth government debt at the time of the government's election just over two years ago? How does this compare with debt levels in the 1970s and 1980s? How is the government acting to reduce debt for the benefit of all Australians?

Mr COSTELLO (Treasurer) —I thank the honourable member for his question. I think the House would be interested to get some idea of the debt position of the Commonwealth and what the government intends to do about it. Just to put this in perspective, when the Whitlam government came to power in 1972 the Commonwealth net debt was about $1 billion or 2.5 per cent of GDP. That had been the level of Commonwealth debt throughout the 1960s and 1970s. As a result of recession in 1982-83, when the Hawke government came to office in 1983 Commonwealth debt was about $9.7 billion or about 5.6 per cent of GDP.

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr COSTELLO —I acknowledge the concern of the Labor Party that debt had gone from about 2.5 per cent to 5.6 per cent of GDP. I acknowledge their concern that it was as high as 5.6 per cent of GDP. When this government came to office in 1996, after 13 years of Labor government—which had started off with debt at $9 billion or 5.6 per cent of GDP—debt had gone to $95 billion or 20 per cent of GDP.

Mr Wilton interjecting—

Mr SPEAKER —The honourable member for Isaacs!

Mr COSTELLO —I do acknowledge the concern of the Labor Party that debt was at 5.6 per cent in 1983. Where is your concern about it being at 20 per cent in 1996?

Mr Wilton interjecting—

Mr SPEAKER —I warn the member for Isaacs.

Mr COSTELLO —As a proportion of a growing economy, it had quadrupled. In terms of absolute numbers, it had gone up by 10 times, from $9 billion to $90 billion. I have actually gone back and done some historical analysis. The historical analysis shows that the two worst years in the post-war era in terms of accrual of debt for the Commonwealth were the two years from 1993 to 1995, and the finance minister of the time was—

Government members —Beazley!

Mr COSTELLO —The statistical analysis concludes, without a shadow of a doubt, that the worst finance minister in Australian federal history was the Leader of the Opposition. He was the worst finance minister in Australian federal history. In two years he presided over an increase of $26 billion of debt. When Labor had come to office, the Commonwealth, in the whole history of federation up to 1993, had accumulated $9 billion of debt, and in two years he had accumulated three times what had taken 83 years to build up. This government has put Australia on a path which will take debt to GDP down from 20 per cent to 10 per cent by the year 2000-2001—isn't that great?—to get the liabilities off future generations of Australians.

With the government's privatisation proposal in relation to Telstra and repaying debt we could take Commonwealth net debt back to four per cent of GDP—back to pre-Labor levels. We could finally with that privatisation get the debt to GDP level back to pre-Hawke-Keating-Beazley levels; and wouldn't that be a great achievement for the young people of Australia? The young people of Australia would have their debt liabilities brought right back to historical standards by this government. That is one of the reasons why we engage in privatisation.

Just to pick up on a point that was made before: we actually believe in employee share ownership schemes unqualifiedly. To give an example of one of the best employee share ownership schemes you have ever seen, in relation to Telstra—which the Australian Labor Party opposed and which the unions of the Australian Labor Party opposed—the number of Telstra employees who took up shares was 92 per cent. That was opposed by the Australian Labor Party and opposed by the unions which pull the strings on the Leader of the Opposition. They were opposing giving the workers a share and a stake in a great national asset. That is why we stand with the employees of Telstra, 92 per cent of whom agree with us and took up shares.