QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS

Senator SCARR (Queensland) (16:04): It's hard to imagine how much $1 trillion is. The people of Australia now owe $1 trillion for the first time in our history, under this Labor government. One trillion dollars equates to 14,000 tonnes of $100 bills; $1 trillion equates to 1,400 kilometres if you stacked $100 bills from the floor of this Senate chamber on the way to the moon.

That's what $1 trillion means. It's one million times one million. It's hard to get your head around, but that's what the Labor government has delivered for the Australian people.

Not only that; it's delivered higher unemployment. We learned today the unemployment rate has hit 4.5 per cent, and, as Senator Smith said, the inflation rate is 3.8 per cent, outside the RBA's band of between two and three per cent. So we have $1 trillion in debt, the highest unemployment rate since the COVID pandemic and 3.8 per cent inflation, outside the RBA range of two to three per cent.

That's one hell of a trifecta. This raises three concerns. First, it's a moral issue, because this level of debt is a betrayal of future generations, of our children and grandchildren, who'll have to pay it back.

Second, the interest burden on that $1 trillion of debt, the interest that's got to be paid before we pay back the principal, is $29.6 billion a year. That's more than what we pay for JobSeeker, more than what we pay for our PBS system, more than what we pay to sustain our Army. That's what we've got to pay in interest.

And, third, because of that level of debt, they've got to impose more taxes, such as the capital gains tax increases and the taxes on discretionary trusts used by hundreds of thousands of small businesses across Australia. That's the issue. As Senator Smith said, in the coalition's plan released by Angus Taylor and Matt Canavan, this is recognised: 'Less debt, better government.' That's on page 26.

I want to read this in terms of our values—and our values, I think, are the values of the Australian people: For Australians to have the means to live, government must live within its means. It makes sense. So what are we going to do?

We're going to put a limit on spending such that government spending can't increase at a rate greater than the economy. It's got to be connected. We're going to establish a future fund so that, when we get a huge increase of revenue from iron ore, from coal, from oil and gas, we actually store some of that for future generations instead of squandering it.

And we're also going to introduce a tax back guarantee for Australians, so, when Australians are pushed into higher tax thresholds because of inflation, the tax thresholds go up. That's the fair thing to do for the Australian people. We should be a country that lives within its means.

This is a moral issue. We shouldn't place the burden of unsustainable debt on future generations.