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Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Page: 2944

Senator RYAN (Victoria) (15:02): I move:

That the Senate take note of answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today relating to the 2012-13 Budget.

Here we have it again: another year, another increase in borrowings; another year, yet more put on the national credit card. Year after year, in all my time here, we have seen government ministers come in here and make devout promises, putting their hand on the Bible and swearing these forecasts are correct, swearing that it will all be better next year. But what we have seen year after year is nothing but rhetoric. These are all empty promises. What we heard from the Treasurer in the other place last night will again be proven to be nothing but an empty promise. This government, when it comes to managing the nation's accounts, has absolutely no credibility. In the words of Senator Wong this afternoon, she had determination to deliver these results; but results speak louder than any determination or any contrived commitment to serious management of the nation's finances. Labor's achievements in this regard are truly extraordinary. What we have seen after the budget tabled last night is a tally of $174 billion in deficits over only four years of Labor budgets. They have turned net assets into net debt of $145 billion.

At this point I would like to take up the issue raised by Senator Joyce with Senator Wong this afternoon about net versus gross debt. Net debt is an important comparison, but what the government does not want to explain when it talks about net debt and when it offsets the gross borrowings mainly with the Future Fund—a fund created by the former coalition government, I hasten to add—is that the Future Fund is already taken into account when we look at other liabilities the Commonwealth owes. If you want a fair comparison, taking into account the assets held in the Future Fund and other Commonwealth assets, you should also look at the other liabilities of the Commonwealth. But that is not what this government actually wants to talk about. This government wants to count the Future Fund twice, and it does that by trying to pretend that the superannuation liabilities that the Future Fund was set up to cover are not being in any way considered when we take into account net debt. That is a very important point, because to every Australian taxpayer those superannuation liabilities are just as due and we are just as liable for them as any bond issued by the Commonwealth and held by the latest overseas investor that has funnelled the money into this government. The point that Senator Joyce raises is very important. You cannot count the Future Fund twice and net it off against gross debt without taking into account the liabilities for which it was set up to fund and has not yet done so completely.

In the current financial year alone, the government's forecast has been shown to be completely without basis in reality. Less than 18 months ago we heard that the current financial year was going to have a $12 billion deficit. A year ago this week it was going to be $22 billion. Last December it was going to be $37 billion. It was going to be $44 billion as of last night. God only knows what it is going to be by 30 June, because if we keep running up that scale it will get into the high-forty billions, because this government is simply unable to manage the nation's accounts.

We are paying $8 billion a year in interest. It works out at $22 million a day that we are paying in interest—not for what great leaders like Sir Henry Bolte might have done, in building freeways and national assets, but merely to have funded the cash splash and the electoral bribes this government is so enamoured with. There is a better way to look at the $22 million a day. Everyone should put a jar in their home kitchen and every day, every member of their family should put a $1 coin in it. It is costing a dollar a day from every Australian just to service the interest bill that this government has run up. And that is not a dollar a day that you can put towards a holiday, to paying off the mortgage or to something you might buy. That is a dollar a day purely to fund and service the debt this government has created. It is an extraordinary level of debt.

Of course, today we heard the catch-all excuse: the global financial crisis, the excuse that keeps on giving. Indeed, a cynic might wonder that today from Senator Wong we actually heard a bit of a warm up, a bit of a simmer of the global financial crisis excuse. I bet that this time next year, if you are still in office, we will be hearing that again. Something happens and the government will always find an excuse. Well, this government is out of excuses. No-one believes you. No-one believes this government will deliver a surplus. It will not be in office to do so. And we will never see the final accounts. This government has got a track record of debt, deficit and deceit.