Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

You have to feel sorry for that member opposite—he has never been described as the brains behind anything. You can understand why he is getting a bit chippy over there. Gross debt is being accumulated $1.65 billion a month faster in the Abbott-Turnbull period than it was in the Rudd-Gillard period, so before they start pointing the finger and pretending it is somebody else's fault they should at least acknowledge that.

In addition to the very good questions that the member for Wakefield asked about the ASC workforce, in particular, which we are very keen to get some answers to, I have some additional questions for the assistant minister. If projected debt at $300 billion was frightening and gigantic and almost inconceivable, what words would he use to describe half a trillion dollars of debt? How much interest will the Australian people be paying on this skyrocketing level of debt? How does he explain the fact that debt is accumulating much faster under them, without a global financial crisis, than it did under us? Will he acknowledge that, when it comes to gross debt, there is not even a peak insight in these budget papers that we are discussing?

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