Mr SLIPPER (9:15 PM) —I had not planned to speak in the adjournment debate tonight, but when the adjournment was brought on slightly earlier I thought I would take the opportunity of rising in the chamber to congratulate the Treasurer (Mr Costello) on bringing down a budget which, for the first time in eight years, has restored the books of this country to the black. We actually have a budget surplus of $2.7 billion.

Mr Laurie Ferguson interjecting—

Mr SLIPPER —The honourable member for Reid (Mr Laurie Ferguson) is obviously very ashamed of the fact that the former Labor government, in contrast, was not able to level with the people of Australia. The former Labor government was part of a succession of governments since 1983 which continued to mortgage the future of our children and grandchildren by ensuring that the government continued to spend more than it earned.

These days, you cannot run a country any other way than you would run a household economy. At home, you simply cannot spend more than the family earns. Despite that, year after year we found that successive Labor Treasurers would come into the chamber and say that we would be having a deficit. At the end of the day, the people of Australia revolted at the ballot box on 2 March 1996.

We all remember the former finance minister, the now Leader of the Opposition (Mr Beazley) telling us that the books of the nation were in surplus. We all remember the way he said that the finances of Australia were in the black. We tried to find out exactly what the situation was, but both the former Prime Minister and the now Leader of the Opposition told us that they could not give us the exact dollar figures but that the budget was in surplus. We all know that on 2 March 1996 the Labor Party was swept from office. A huge tidal wave cast them into the dustbin of history. They were reduced to 49 members of this place, and the Liberal and National parties overwhelmingly received the support of the Australian people. Seventy-six Liberal Party members and 18 National Party members were elected—a total coalition majority of 94 to 49, with a number of Independents.

So the Labor Party obviously ought to have learnt the lesson and appreciated that one ought to level and be honest with the Australian people. The Treasurer told the House that we would introduce a charter of budget honesty bill, and we did. Ultimately, it has got through the parliament, but the Labor Party initially refused to guarantee passage of the Charter of Budget Honesty Bill. This bill will ensure that never again will any government be able to lie and deceive the Australian people, or seek to do so, when an election is called. At every future election, you will find that the secretaries to the departments of Treasury and Finance will certify as to the books of Australia so that the people will be able to decide on election day whether the government of the day is worthy of continued support. They will be able to point out what the actual situation is. I believe that history will record that as being one of the major changes put in place by this government, because what we have ensured is that in future there will be honesty, openness and accountability, and that we will never again find that governments will seek to lie, rob and cheat their way back into another term of office.

So I am proud to be part of a government which inherited a $10.3 billion debt but accepted the responsibility to fix it—and fixed it we have. For the first time in eight years, the budget is now back in the black. There is a budget surplus of $2.7 billion, and our children and grandchildren will thank the Treasurer and this government for our responsible economic management. I believe that this is one of the best governments in this country's history. We will continue to receive the support of the Australian people, because they support honesty, openness, accountability and good government. (Time expired)