You can’t trust Wayne Swan, you can’t trust Labor
The record.
Actions speak louder than words, results more than rhetoric. Peter Costello summarised it perfectly this morning. Wayne Swan really is out of his depth.
Last year, Mr Swan promised no less than 500 times that he would deliver a
budget surplus this year.
Joe Hockey called Labor on it years ago – this Labor Government and Wayne Swan
will never deliver a budget surplus.
And tonight we saw Joe proved right. This marks Mr Swan’s fifth straight
budget deficit.
We knew it was coming; Wayne Swan has form. The last few weeks have been full
of Labor’s excuses.
Looking through the six budgets Wayne Swan has delivered, there is an eerie
similarity with the promises and, sadly, the results.
In his 2008 Budget speech Wayne Swan said “We
are budgeting for a surplus of $21.7 billion in 2008-09, 1.8 per cent of GDP,
the largest budget surplus as a share of GDP in nearly a decade”.
The result was a deficit of $27 billion.
In 2009 Wayne Swan claimed that a major aim of the 2009 budget was to bring it
back to surplus and pay down debt in the medium term.
The result was a deficit of $55 billion.
It wasn’t third time lucky for Australia or Wayne Swan in 2010: “Our strategy will see us return to
surplus in three years, three years ahead of schedule. The budget deficit of
$40.8 billion for 2010-11 is almost $6 billion less than the forecast at MYEFO
and $16 billion less than expected one year ago,” he said.
The result was a deficit of $48 billion.
In 2011 Wayne Swan said the budget would be back in the black by 2012-13. He
went on to add that the alternative – meandering back to surplus – would
compound the pressures in our economy and push up the cost of living for
pensioners and working people.
The result was a deficit of $44 billion.
Of course, this time last year, Wayne Swan attempted to fool everyone again –
yet he only managed to fool himself: “The four years of surpluses I announce tonight are a powerful endorsement. … This
Budget delivers a surplus this coming year, on time, as promised, and surpluses
each year after that, strengthening over time.”
Yet tonight Wayne Swan announced an expected budget deficit of $19 billion for the
current financial year.
In the coming financial year, this is expected to be a deficit of $18 billion and in the
following 2014-15 year another
$11 billion.
A picture says a thousand words…
The record of Labor versus the Coalition could not be more stark.
Comment
In the lead up to the Budget, the business community, the driver of jobs, had
some of the most frank advice to a government in memory:
“…the business community is simply not going to accept a number or a promise.
Government behaviours have to change. It has to reassess its expenditure…”
Peter Anderson, Australian Chamber Commerce and Industry
“I’m looking not so much for a plan to get back into surplus. I’m looking for a
plan. This is just chaotic. I’ve never seen anything quite so chaotic.”
Mitch Hooke, Minerals Council of Australia, Chief Executive:
“After thirty years of growth, massive resources wealth, low unemployment, low
inflation and great institutions, we should be in great shape. We should be
number one in the world on every KPI that you measure country on, and here we
are, our fiscal policy is in tatters.”
Tony Shepherd, Business Council Australia President
As Joe Hockey has pointed out this evening:
Budget 2013 delivers more debt, more deficits, more taxes, more broken promises and more uncertainty from an incompetent Labor Government that can’t be trusted.
The Budget does nothing to help Australian families deal with rising cost of living pressures, economic uncertainty and poor services.
Instead Budget 2013 delivers the following:
- total gross debt to breach the $300 billion debt ceiling within the forward estimates;
- Labor’s fifth record deficit in five years and at least two more deficits to come;
- record net debt of $192 billion;
- no credible path back to surplus;
- more broken promises such as scrapped tax cuts and family payments; and
- more than $25 billion in higher taxes over the next four years.
Only a change of Government can end the debt, deficit and deceit of Labor’s financial mismanagement.
On September 14, your support is crucial to restore Hope, Reward and Opportunity for all Australians.
As always, I look forward to working with you. Please drop me a line at any time if I can be of assistance.
Kind regards,
Scott Ryan.
Liberal Senator for Victoria.