QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS
Senator McGRATH (Queensland) (16:12): In 1996, Labor and Paul Keating bequeathed Australia $96 billion of debt. I thought that was a pretty big number. But Prime Minister Albanese and the Labor Party are bequeathing Australians a trillion dollars of debt.
As Senator Scarr said, it's a million million dollars. I was interjecting—which I know is disorderly. I was asking various Labor ministers, 'How many zeros are there in a trillion dollars?' There are 12 zeros in a trillion dollars.
But more worrying than the number of zeros in a trillion dollars is the interest payments. I shall be speaking for four minutes this afternoon. In the four minutes that I am speaking, our debt will have gone up $208,000—that is $52,000 a minute.
That's a $27-billion-a-year interest bill. What are this government going to do about it? The first thing they're doing is blaming everyone else.
They're blaming the previous government. They're blaming world affairs. They're blaming Robert Menzies.
They're saying that the dog ate the homework, that the cat ran off with the iPad. Everyone else is to blame except this Labor government in coming to terms with their massive incompetence when it comes to fiscal management. There's an old saying that, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
I am not using this as a prop, but there is a plan that has been put out by the Leader of the Opposition, Angus Taylor, and the leader of the National Party, Matt Canavan— An honourable senator interjecting— Senator McGRATH: I'll take that interjection. This plan— The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator McGrath, unless you are reading from the document, I ask you to put it on your desk.
Senator McGRATH: I am going to read from the document, because I'm going to read the table of contents of this document, which is allowed to be read. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Chisholm, are you on your feet with a point of order? Senator Chisholm: Yes.
My understanding was that slogans on materials are not appropriate for the chamber. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I will check with the clerk. Senator McGrath, you can—as I believed—read from the document, but I would ask you to do it in such a way that you are not using it to display a visible slogan.
Senator McGRATH: I would never do something like that—to display a visible slogan. I would encourage people to go to the coalition's plan to put Australians first. I would encourage Australians to go to page 26 of this document.
It is a very thorough document. This document outlines our plan to reduce government debt and also to have better government. That is something I think all Australians want.
They do want a better government. They don't want this prime minister, who's rarely in the same room as truth. They want a government who understands that there is a huge crisis out there at the moment.
There is a cost-of-living crisis, and it is being driven along by excessive government spending. In the 31-minute speech of the Treasurer, whose political heroes are Wayne Swan and Paul Keating—heaven help us!—the government has realised that this treasurer is going to go down as the worst treasurer this country has seen because of the trillion dollars of debt, and they have no plan.
This is the point that I'd ask those who are listening to remember: this government has no plan to pay down the trillion dollars of debt. The coalition do have a plan. They do have a plan to fix the economy and to protect our way of life, because Australia is worth fighting for, and we've got to get rid of this government to make it a better place.
(Time expired) Question agreed to.