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Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Page: 387

Senator MARSHALL (Victoria) (15:57): I assure Senator Edwards that no-one on the side of the chamber thinks that the opposition is the government and he would be well served not to believe their rhetoric. This government does not believe that the economy is a shambles. This is a myth that you are trying to promote.

Australia's economy is the envy of the developed world. It is now in its 20th consecutive year of economic growth, a record unmatched by any other advanced economy. Senator Edwards, do not go—you should stay and you should listen to this. Australia's GDP is significantly higher than its pre-GFC level, while many advanced economies are still struggling to make up lost ground. The unemployment rate has fallen to around five per cent and is now lower than all but one major advanced economy, and Australia has lower government debt and lower budget deficits than any of the other major advanced economies and will return to a budget surplus sooner than any other advanced economy. So I really find it quite puzzling that the opposition would come in here and take note of this particular question.

I suppose that it is a symptom of predetermining before question time which question you will take note on, because Senator Wong simply wiped the floor with the opposition in respect of the economy. And she said, behind every falsehood and every wrong assertion lies a $70 billion black hole of the opposition. I understand why Senator Edwards struggled so much in any defence of the position put because he must have been well and truly embarrassed by his side in their feeble attempts to actually score any points on economic grounds against this government—this government, that has done more to defend this economy than any other. If we had done what the opposition wanted to do at the beginning of the global financial crisis this country would still be deep in recession. We would have hundreds and hundreds of thousands more people unemployed. They would not care about that; they would rip the guts out of this economy. That was their plan: to let the market rip, and no Australian should ever forget that.

This was the government, this was the Treasurer and this was the team that actually defended this country from economic ruin—something that you opposed, and that the Australian people will remember. As I said earlier, we enjoy and are the economic envy of the rest of the developed world, and we will continue to maintain that position. We will bring this budget back to surplus—something that Senator Humphries finally got around to agreeing with, even though he started by saying that we would not bring it back to surplus, but that when we did, it would only be wafer thin because it would only be $1½ billion. By the time he ended his contribution he had actually talked himself into the position of accepting that we would in fact be in surplus.

But here we are, this is the Liberals; they want to pretend that there was no global financial crisis, no turmoil in Europe, no natural disasters last year and no high dollar. It is the same economic team whose advice would have sent Australia into recession and would have sent unemployment skyrocketing. The Liberal Party has failed the budget test countless times, and their credibility is in absolute tatters.

Only recently we saw the Leader of the Opposition saying that they may not get a budget surplus in the first year or anywhere after that if they are elected. After giving previous commitments that they would move into a budget surplus quicker than the Labor government, they are now walking away from that promise. In fact, it is an aspiration. A budget surplus for the Liberal Party has become an aspiration. Why is it an aspiration? Because they know they can never get there. They can never get anywhere near there because behind all their rhetoric and behind all their promises is a $70 billion black hole of commitments and promises they have made which they know they cannot fund. They know they cannot fund them. But in order to try and buy their way into an election victory they will promise everything. They will promise a spend of $70 billion at the moment, and the election campaign has not even started for them. We know that that $70 billion will continue to grow. They are economically irresponsible. (Time expired)