Senator MASON (3:08 PM) —Mr Deputy President, isn't this a terrific budget? I commend to you the Budget at a Glance document that the government has issued. It gives a marvellous summary of what the government has done. The only reason we could do so much for families, cut income tax and boost retirement savings is that we have been responsible since 1996—unlike the Australian Labor Party. The other day I was listening to the ABC—I listen to the ABC—and Mr Keating was on the radio. Mr Keating said: `The only reason it is so easy for the Liberal Party these days is because they have adopted our franchise. The Labor Party made all the reforms. The Liberal Party has adopted our franchise and now it's all easy. It's easy for Costello. It's easy for Howard. It's easy for the government.'

I think it is a good thing, as Senator Conroy mentioned, to talk a little bit about history. Let us talk about the franchise of the Labor Party. Their franchise was net government debt of $100 billion. We have paid back about $70 billion and, as Senator Ian Campbell said today in question time, we have saved billions of dollars in interest in so doing. Inflation under the Labor Party averaged about 5.2 per cent—do you remember that? Under the Liberal government it is now under three per cent. Inflation, which corrodes society and corrodes investment, was part of the Labor Party franchise.

Remember that mortgage rates were up to about 17 per cent? The average Australian battlers could not afford to buy a home and they certainly could not afford to repay the loan. That was part of the Labor Party franchise that Mr Keating spoke so glowingly about. The Labor franchise was high mortgage rates. Worse still was the unemployment rate under Labor. Do you know what their franchise was? They had a franchise on an unemployment rate of over 10 per cent. That was the franchise of the Labor Party. More than one million people were unemployed. That was their franchise—and worse again.

Mortgages rates today are down below seven per cent and the unemployment rate is below six per cent. The franchise of the Australian Labor Party for all those years in office was fundamentally flawed. Do you know what the flaw was? The flaw was the big lie of the accord. Their franchise was the big lie of the accord, under which the living standards of average Australians actually fell. That was their franchise. Government debt was way up, inflation was way up, mortgage rates were way up, unemployment was way up and real wages were right down. That was the Labor Party franchise. The only reason we can do all the things in this budget—which is a terrific budget for Australian families, for investment, for business and for the future—is because we did not borrow their franchise; we developed a new one. Do you know what we are going to do? We are going to give the Australian people a fiscal outlook of $2.4 billion in surplus and we are going to spend $36.7 billion in new assistance to families, tax cuts and increased incentives to boost retirement savings.

This budget also includes the largest package of assistance for families ever, with an additional $19.2 billion over the next five years. That is more money than has ever been given to families in the history of this Commonwealth. That is our franchise and we can only do it because of responsible economic management under the Howard-Costello government. There has been a lot of talk today about cutting income tax. Reductions in personal tax worth $14.7 billion over four years will improve work rewards. This was our promise: more than 80 per cent of taxpayers will have to pay a top marginal tax rate of 30 per cent or less. Just the other day Mr Latham said, `We need to make the Australian tax system fairer and put some incentive back into the Australian economy.' In his speech to the national conference in January, Mr Latham condemned the fact that nearly one million Australian families faced effective marginal tax rates of at least 60 per cent. He said:

If that is what he still believes and if that is what he still argues, he should pass this budget and get on with it. (Time expired)