Australia must get Labor's debt under control

'A True Labor Budget' - Joe Hockey in Parliament on a Matter of Public Importance - Part 1

Part 2

Malcolm Turnbull and Labor's reckless Budget

NEWS

Shadow Treasurer Address to the National Press Club - '2009 Budget - the lost opportunity'

It is absolutely true that this global recession is the most severe global economic downturn since the 1930s. It does not logically follow however, as relentless government spin suggests, that this is the worst economic downturn for Australia since the 1930s. Government spin wants the economic challenge to be greater than what it really is! They want everyone to believe that only the Rudd Government can save Australia from the devastation of the downturn affecting other countries. And last Tuesday’s Budget, with its overblown and overcooked rhetoric, raised expectations that it failed to meet. How else could the Treasurer justify omitting both the $58 billion deficit and $188 billion of net debt in his speech, as well as $18 billion of income tax cuts that are delivered in the next fourteen months. If mentioned, neither announcement suited the political spin.

Turnbull Doorstop - Visit to Adelaide, Coalition’s Plan for Recovery, reimbursement of MPs and Senators, Labor’s mountain of debt and deficit...

As you know, our focus, our National Plan for Recovery is focused on small business and we’ve proposed a number of measures, a number of new policy initiatives which will really support small business, provide them with much needed cash flow in these tough times because this is, small business is the engine room of the economy. It’s the most dynamic and flexible part of the economy and that’s why it is right at the centre of our National Plan for Recovery.

Leader of the Opposition Address to the Liberal Party of Australia - South Australian Division

For the first time in history, possibly in world history, that a Treasurer has ever given a Budget speech and not mentioned the result, not mentioned the deficit or the surplus as the case may be. Those of you that are in business, imagine if you turned up to your shareholders meeting and reported to the shareholders and did not mention what the bottom line was – an extraordinary example of cowardice and shame.

Turnbull Doorstop - Labor’s mountain of debt and deficit, Kevin Rudd’s reckless spending, Labor’s bungling of employee share ownership schemes

I’m concerned about is the shocking level of unemployment that is forecast in the Budget, the shocking levels of debt and deficit. And I see today Ken Henry, the Secretary of the Treasury, has said that there have been some communication problems with the Budget. Well, there have been two very big communication problems, well at least two and they are that firstly the Treasurer couldn’t bring himself to say what the deficit was – he was so ashamed of it – and last night it took what seemed like hours for Kevin Rudd to finally `fess up to what the level of debt was.

Turnbull interview with Kieran Weir (ABC North & West) - Labor’s mountain of debt and deficit, Coalition’s commitment to water security...

In terms of the management of the economy, the single most important thing, most urgent thing is to get spending under control. We need some discipline – real discipline – in Government. It is I think for most Australians absolutely staggering that a Government would go into debt to do these cash handouts for which we have nothing to show. Just think about this – these guys gave away $23 billion in borrowed money. For $23 billion, you could have completed the duplication, dual carriageway from Adelaide to Melbourne to Sydney to Brisbane.

Leader of the Opposition Address to the Queensland Media Club

Now Australians today are paying a very heavy price for Kevin Rudd’s reckless spending. The Budget speech that we heard on Tuesday night was a first, not simply because the levels of debt that were without precedent, not simply because the deficit – nearly $58 billion – was without precedent, but because we had a Treasurer who was too ashamed of that deficit to actually say what it was and this bears some reflection.

Budget 2009 - Address in Reply

Australians are now paying the price for Labor's reckless spending. Our plan is built on four key principles to help Australia recover and grow: 1. Protecting and creating jobs for all Australians. 2. Keeping debt as low as possible. 3. Targeting spending at jobs and economic infrastructure. 4. Supporting private enterprise and small business – the drivers of economic growth.

The Government's failure to keep control of the nation's public finances

Last night I heard a member of the Labor Party describe this budget as a traditional Labor budget. I thought how true that is—big deficit, big debt and more people unemployed. This is the Labor way. It is like groundhog day in this place. The Labor Party comes in and Australia heads towards recession. The Labor Party comes in and we reach record levels of deficit and debt.

Turnbull interview with Keith Conlon and Tony Pilkington (Radio 5AA) - Labor's nation-wrecking Budget

We recognise that this is putting an unsustainable burden of debt on future generations. I mean, we face very big challenges in the future. All of the risks, the inherent risks in the future, an ageing population, greater claims on the services of government, greater claims on taxes – all of those things are well understood. And so that’s why when we were in government we did everything we could and were successful at paying off Labor’s debt, at putting money aside to meet future obligations through the Future Fund. In other words, strengthening our public finances so that we were better able to deal with challenges in the future.

Hockey interview with Geoff Hutchinson (ABC Radio) - Budget

They haven't been fair dinkum with the Australian people about the real size of the debt, $188 billion. And we have come from a position I heard Lindsay Tanner on a little earlier on talking about how much debt we have compared with the rest of the world. Well you know what; 12 months ago we had no debt. In fact we had surplus funds. And Mr Rudd has spent it. Of the $188 billion of debt, almost two thirds of it is in new spending by the Rudd government in the last 18 months.

Turnbull interview with Steve Price (Radio 2UE) - Labor's nation-wrecking Budget

The deficit was so horrible that the Treasurer couldn’t even bring himself to mention it in his speech. This is the first time in history that a treasurer has given a budget night speech and has not mentioned, hasn’t had the guts to say what the result of the budget is. He couldn’t tell us, wasn’t prepared to say that it was $58 billion in deficit and he wasn’t prepared to say that the debt by 2012 would be $188 billion – the two key numbers he wasn’t prepared to utter.

Labor's nation-wrecking Budget

This Budget reveals the high price all Australians will pay for Labor’s reckless spending spree over the past 18 months.

Shadow Treasurer's Budget response presentation

www.TheRealRuddBudget.com