Senator IAN MACDONALD (11:14 PM) —I am pleased to join the debate today. It just so happens that at this time of night there is not a lot of other entertainment on the radio and there are quite a number of Australians listening to the broadcast of the Senate. I just want to remind those Australians who might be listening to tonight’s debate that when the current government came into being in December last year, they inherited a $22 billion surplus, left to them by the Howard-Costello government. Contrast that with 1996 when the Howard government came in. What did they have then? They had a deficit of $96 billion. In the year that we took office, 1996, the Labor government, after telling the world that they had the economy well in hand, actually had a $10 billion current account deficit in that one year alone.

Australia is facing an economic difficulty at the present time. It sort of started when Mr Rudd and that totally incompetent Treasurer, Mr Swan, took office. They have been able to manage things, to date, alone, but can you imagine what sort of problem Australia would be in today if, instead of inheriting a $22 billion surplus, the current government had instead inherited a $96 billion deficit, as the Howard-Costello government did back in 1996? Had the Rudd government inherited a $96 billion debt plus a $10 billion current account deficit, can you imagine that sorts of problems we would be facing at the moment?

I remember 1996 well, because about 10 per cent of my fellow Australians did not have a job, and that happened under a Labor government. Unemployment was enormous in 1996—

Senator Feeney interjecting—

Senator IAN MACDONALD —Senator Feeney, perhaps you were not around then or perhaps you were getting some union campaign organised. You certainly were not looking after the jobs of your union members, because unemployment in 1996 was at an all-time high. You might remember as well that inflation in 1996, after 13 years of Labor government, was in double digit figures. People complain that Mr Rudd and Mr Swan talk up inflation, but even when they are talking it up they are talking about three, four and five per cent. When the previous government took over in 1996, inflation was in double digit figures and interest rates were up around eight or nine per cent. I remember back when the Paul Keating government was in office. I was buying a house in those days. I was paying 17.5 per cent interest on my housing loan under that Labor government. You can understand why Australians appreciate that Labor cannot be trusted with money.

For those who might be listening, if you think that you are having troubles with your mortgage at the moment, imagine how you would have been if you were paying 17½ per cent interest on your housing loan. That is what happened under the last period of Labor government. Not only did they leave a $96 billion debt, not only did they leave unemployment at record rates, not only did they leave inflation in double digit figures, but they left ordinary householders like me paying 17½ per cent interest on my housing loan.

Senator Mason —Commercial borrowings were over 20 per cent.

Senator IAN MACDONALD —Thank you, Senator Mason. At that time, I was in a legal practice and I had a lot to do with small business people. They were paying the banks 23 per cent. The banks were not lending, so they were paying private lenders 28 per cent to keep their businesses going. That was Labor’s mismanagement of the economy. You simply cannot trust Labor with money.

I draw the comparison: we took over government in 1996 with a $96 billion deficit. Over a period of 11 years and a lot of hard work with a lot of very good management of money, we paid off Labor’s debt after about seven years and then we started putting money aside. As Senator Parry said, we put it under the mattress. We started putting the surpluses away for the future of Australia. When we left office we left this government a $22 billion surplus. Within 12 short months that $22 billion surplus has now turned into what appears to be a deficit.

Government senators interjecting—

Senator IAN MACDONALD —I know that the Labor Party senators—and there are a lot of them here for this time of night; usually they are somewhere else at this time of night—are trying to drown me out, Mr President, because they understand that—

The PRESIDENT —Just address your comments to the Chair, Senator Macdonald. Ignore the interjections; I will deal with those.

Senator IAN MACDONALD —The interjections are so irrelevant and puerile that I am of course ignoring them. On reading the transcript of this you will recognise that I have been addressing nobody else but you all night, Mr President. So perhaps your comments should be directed to those on your right—that is, those in the Labor Party who are trying to drown me out.

The PRESIDENT —Senator Macdonald, you just address your comments to the Chair and do not try to tell me how to do my job.

Senator IAN MACDONALD —Mr President, I have addressed my comments to nobody else but you—

The PRESIDENT —That is what I am saying; just address me.

Senator IAN MACDONALD —but I would expect your protection from the enormous amount—

The PRESIDENT —You have been protected, Senator Macdonald.

Senator IAN MACDONALD —of interjections that I am getting from the Labor party. The Labor senators do not want the people who are listening to this debate tonight to hear me pointing out that one year ago the Rudd government was left with a $22 billion surplus. And here we are, within 12 months, talking of, in Mr Rudd’s own words, a deficit. How can you blow $22 billion in 12 short months? I know how they ran up a debt of $96 billion in 13 years, because I was there and I saw the second half of it. I saw the ‘recession we had to have’.

I only mention these things because of what Senator Feeney and Senator Parry said—they encouraged me to assist in putting the record straight. When you compare Labor with Liberal, you have a $96 billion deficit by Labor and you have, after 11 years of hard work, a $22 billion surplus by the Liberals. It took us 11 years to pay off Labor’s $96 billion debt and convert that into a $22 billion surplus, but the Labor Party have blown it all in 12 short months. We are now going back into deficit.

How can you ever trust Labor with money? It is an old principle, Mr President. Look around the states. Every state in this country—apart from Western Australia, now run by a Liberal government—is owned by Labor, run by Labor, and now going into deficit, and they are doing the same thing in the federal parliament.

I am delighted to have been able to enter the debate for those people who do quite seriously listen to the debates at this time of night. It is important that we put on the record the real situation and not the Labor rhetoric.