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Monday, 12 September 2011
Page: 5716

Senator BILYK (Tasmania) (15:06): The government is not withdrawing anything from the Future Fund. That is fundamentally incorrect. It is another false assertion by those on the other side, another part of the scare campaign that they have run constantly since they have been in opposition. They are trying to scare the people of Australia so that they will vote for them at the next election. People are not conned by that at all. As the minister said in question time, she has put out a press release asserting the fact, but those on the other side once again just do not want to know that, just do not want to hear it. As we heard earlier, it appears that the only people that are not happy with the economy in Australia are those on the other side. They do not want to know any of the good news; they just want to talk down the economy all the time. When you come from a party where you have got a $70 billion black hole, it just amazes me that you continue to talk down the economy.

The government has a very sound fiscal strategy, unlike those on the other side. They cannot even work out how to fix up their big black hole. Instead of making false claims about the budget they would do better to focus—especially Mr Robb and Mr Hockey, who cannot even get their facts aligned—on how they are going to deal with their big black hole. Ever since they have been in opposition they have been talking down the economy and doing nothing—all they have done is oppose, oppose, oppose. They have to realise that there are 140,000 more Australians in jobs than there were a year ago. That is a very important issue. The people of Australia understand that that is an important issue. I also think Mr Hockey should stop trying to avoid scrutiny by undermining the role of the Parliamentary Budget Office. If the coalition were serious about budget accountability and transparency they would support the recommended model for the Parliamentary Budget Office and the government's legislation. But, no, they cannot do that. They have to come out with a brand-new scare campaign. Every week there is a new scare campaign. The latest is that the government is going to sell off Future Fund money. As I have said, that is untrue. It is just another scare campaign from those on the other side.

The Gillard government has a sound fiscal strategy. We understand the importance of having that sound fiscal strategy and making sure that the government and the country are able to move forward. We understood that when we went into deficit to put stimulus into the economy, which kept over 200,000 Australian jobs and kept people off the dole queues. We made it clear at that time that we would return the budget to surplus, and that is what we continue to do. We laid down a budget earlier this year that has us coming back to surplus in 2012-13, and as a government we are determined to deliver on that.

As I said, those opposite can run their scare campaigns. Today it is one thing, tomorrow it is another thing and last week it was something else. I do not think a week has gone by where they have not come up with some new scare campaign to try to make themselves look more impressive. The $70 billion black hole is the thing that people out there in voter land will remember. Those opposite cannot come up with a way to deal with it. They would rather cut pensions to Australian pensioners for two years or cut Medicare than deal with the reality of their $70 billion black hole. At the time of the previous election, if my memory serves me correctly, they had an $11 billion black hole that I do not think they dealt with appropriately either.

Our economy is in a very strong position. It is almost stronger than that of any other advanced economy. We are weathering the global financial uncertainty, as we did the previous financial crisis. We are building productivity, we are investing in skills and education, we are investing in trade training centres and we are investing in the National Broadband Network. Those opposite did nothing for 12 years. They claim that they had this great surplus when they lost government, but they did nothing. They did not spend on infrastructure. They did not spend any money for the future of the people of Australia. They do not care what happens in future to the children of today. They just do not care. (Time expired)