Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Let us talk about the budget, Member for Jagajaga. Perversely, the Australian Labor Party entirely miss the point. Their lectures and their moral superiority about caring for the environment and making sure that we hand over to our children a better environment in the future entirely miss the point that the legacy of the Australian Labor Party is to hand to the next generation of Australians decades of debt. That is the legacy of this shadow Treasurer; that is the legacy of the Australian Labor Party. The Australian Labor Party's track record is to write $25,000 of debt for every man, woman and child in Australia. That is Labor's legacy.

So it is no surprise that we members of the coalition do not take them very seriously. Their lectures about equity, their lectures about fairness, their longwinded soliloquies about how only the Australian Labor Party can be trusted to safeguard the future. The fact is that Labor's track record is one great big 'F', and that is an 'F' for 'fail', because we know that the Australian Labor Party is a complete, abysmal failure. When it comes to economic management, we know Labor's track record: $667 billion of debt. When it comes to deficits, we know Labor's track record: $123 billion worth of budget deficits. When it comes to providing a budget surplus—incidentally, that word 'surplus' is missing from the member for Lilley's index in his book!—on over 500 occasions they promised a surplus, only to fail to deliver it.

I have to conclude on one positive note. There was a Labor frontbencher who tried really hard to set a new record. That is the shadow Treasurer. We all know the shadow Treasurer's record when it came to border protection: over 750 boats and over 50,000 people blowing out the budget by more than $11 billion. That is the reason why the Australian people will never trust the Australian Labor Party. (Time expired)

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