Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2025-2026
Mr TED O'BRIEN (Fairfax—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (11:22): I wish to acknowledge the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, who's in the chamber today. I also want to acknowledge the Assistant Treasurer, who was here for the debate just passed. The reason I want to acknowledge both of these gentlemen is that the Treasurer himself has decided not to turn up today.
On one hand, I sort of get it. His performance has been absolutely dreadful as the Treasurer. But I also get it because both the assistant minister for productivity and the Assistant Treasurer actually have PhDs in economics.
They understand numbers. We know the Treasurer, to his credit, also has a PhD, albeit in political communications. So, where there is a well-scripted speech about the economy, it is important to have the Treasurer there because he is best in class when it comes to the government's front bench on political communications.
Indeed, he has a PhD in it. But, when it comes to these sorts of debates in the chamber, you often see him missing from action, and that's for good reason—he actually doesn't understand the economy itself. So I do give credit to those opposite who are here who actually do have some training in economics.
What they understand as much as the coalition does is the Australian people are feeling poorer, because they are. The Australian economy is looking weaker because it is. Australia as a nation is becoming increasingly dependent on foreign supply chains because we are losing our own sovereign capabilities.
A lot of this has to do with the budget position. In particular, we have seen debt go up. Debt is forecast by the Labor government to hit $1 trillion this financial year, up to $1.2 trillion by the time of the next election.
To put this in context, every single minute of the day, an additional $50,000 is spent on interest payments on this government's debt. That is the situation we have today. If indeed the government had been acting prudently, responsibly, we would have $100 billion less debt today than we do.
But they haven't done that. The thing is the more the debt grows, the more they are effectively placing a burden on the next generation of Australians. There is a moral aspect—or should I say 'immoral' aspect—to the government's actions here.
The more they bump up debt, the more the next generation will be slugged with it to pick it up. We're talking here about younger Australians who already, thanks to the government, cannot find a house. Young Australians are struggling to find homes because this government has failed on all of its targets.
Those few who have homes and have an average mortgage are paying about $1,800 more every single month thanks to this government. And that's just on interest payments. It's quite extraordinary.
That's over $21,000 every single year due to this government. These are young Australians who are being lumped with so much debt. Here's the problem.
It's only going to get worse from here. It's only getting worse. Right now, younger Australians are struggling, but as they go through their life they are not only going to have more debt; they are, thanks to this government, going to have more tax.
We can see that because the only tax proposal on the table from this government is to tax unrealised capital gains in superannuation funds. We know very well that that breaches a red line in tax law, and, of course, they're not indexing this, which means that more and more young people are going to be hit by this tax over time. Paul Keating himself has made his views on this very clear.
This is unfair. There is a moral obligation here. The problem is that this government will not stop its spending spree, and it will not start to grow the Australian economy.
Government spending is growing at four times the rate of the Australian economy. They are spending $160 billion more this financial year than the coalition's last budget. They just can't help it.
The Treasurer, who's not here, just can't help spending. This is a problem. I feel for the two assistant ministers underneath him, who actually understand how the economy works.
My question is: Will the government stop the spending spree? Will the government start growing the economic pipe? Will the government introduce quantifiable fiscal rules?