Page 2477 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 9 August 2016
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MRS JONES: Yes. An article in today’s Canberra Times reports that significant flaws have been discovered in the so-called costings of Liberal Party policies. Professor Lewis of the University of Canberra said that the analysis was “definitely wrong and flawed”. Why did you issue an economic analysis that was wrong and flawed?
MADAM SPEAKER: On the subject that the question was about—why did you issue an economic analysis—can you be directly relevant to the question, please, Mr Barr?
MR BARR: Thank you, Madam Speaker. Yes, we analysed, conservatively, the commitments that have been made. The professor has agreed about our $400 million assessment: “I think that’s probably around the right figure”. When asked again by the interviewer, he said, “Yes, take that as read,” around the $400 million figure. As to the assumptions that the government has made, we have assumed that in trying to fill the $400 million hole, those opposite would seek to fill half of that hole—only half of that hole—with job cuts.
But we do know the form of the Liberal Party on these questions. One need only look at Tony Abbott, the former Prime Minister, just before the last election when he said there would be no cuts to health, no cuts to education, no cuts to pensions, no cuts to the ABC and no cuts to SBS. What happened in his first budget? He cut health, he cut education, he cut pensions, he cut the ABC and he cut SBS. They have form.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mrs Jones.
MRS JONES: Minister, what involvement did Treasury have in preparing your announcement?
MR BARR: None. We stand by the $400 million black hole that has been confirmed by Professor Lewis this morning. He absolutely confirmed a $400 million black hole in the Liberal Party’s fiscal position before the campaign has even begun, before the spend-o-metre starts ticking over furiously from those opposite, and we are going to see this in the next nine weeks. They are going to continue to spend money they do not have. They are going to continue to argue that they can simultaneously cut taxes, raise spending and reduce the budget deficit.
We have heard this before. This is exactly what Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey said prior to the 2013 election. They mumbled something about growth. They mumbled something about business as usual and then, when they got in, they did exactly what every other Liberal government has done in this country in this decade, be it in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory or indeed federally, because it is in their DNA.
They sack people. They cut jobs in the public sector. It is why they are in politics, to have a smaller public sector. That is your core philosophical belief, smaller government, and you are going to create a smaller government if you are elected. A smaller government means fewer people employed, fewer services for Canberrans and a worse Canberra into the future.
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