STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Ms BELL (Moncrieff) (13:51): Today marks a critical point in Australian history because this government is maxing out the national credit card and leaving Australians to foot the bill. Today, our national debt hits $1 trillion for the first time. We're paying $52,000 every 60 seconds just in interest.

That's $27 billion a year down the drain. It's money that could fund more than 200,000 nurses or $1,800 in tax relief for every taxpayer every year. To put this into perspective, one year of interest payments would be enough to fund 325,000 first home deposits.

Two years of interest payments could cover the annual childcare fees for 1.5 million Australian children. Three years of interest payments could pay off every single Australian's HECS debt. Australians, I urge you to take note of what this government is doing before it's too late, because every dollar spent servicing Labor's debt is a dollar that can't be spent on Australians.

$52,000 of interest every 60 seconds is money we will never see a benefit from. When Labor spends, its future generations who will foot the bill through higher taxes and fewer services all because this government failed to care about their future.