05-November-2010
Portfolio Media Releases, The Economy
Topics: Labor’s phoney surplus, need for a mini-budget, need for increased competition in banking.
E&OE
ANDREW ROBB:
We’ve just been witness to the latest humiliation for Wayne Swan.
The long-standing, non-negotiable, so-called ‘surplus’ that has been promised now for months and months and particularly before the election, turns out to be a phoney. It’s a phoney.
The fact of the matter is that the Government has lost control of its budget. Its revenue is starting to fall away. They knew this would happen. They’re now softening us up for what was always going to happen.
The Treasurer of the country needs to start taking some hard decision. Next week’s financial outlook needs to be turned into a mini-budget. They’ve got to start to stop the reckless spending. They’ve got to get the books back in the black. They’ve got to get Australia living within its means.
This is a Government that only knows taxing and spending and borrowing. They’re addicted to taxing and spending and borrowing and Australians are paying the price with seven interest rate rises in a row.
If we’re going to take pressure off interest rates, take pressure off families, take pressure off small business, the Government has to rein in its reckless spending, live within our means, get the books back in the black and make sure that as a country we are doing the sensible and prudent thing with our finances.
They’ve got to stop the $100 million a day borrowing, the reckless spending, take some hard decisions, get some control, get back on the front foot.
This is a government which is out of control.
JOURNALIST:
How would you put the budget in surplus?
ANDREW ROBB:
Well, firstly there was $50 billion worth of savings that the Coalition identified before the election. The Government should have a good look at those opportunities.
The Cash for Clunkers program that they promised is a nonsense – it’s a waste of $600 million. That should be scrapped. The Green Loan program for starters, the Climate Change Institute overseas which we alone are subsidising to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
There’s a whole raft of things including $6 billion of stimulus money that is still to be spent by this Government. At the time that the Reserve Bank is putting the brakes on, the Federal Government is still putting the foot down on the accelerator as far as spending, even though they’re borrowing $100 million a day.
Wayne Swan has to take charge. This is a man who seems incapable of taking the hard decisions. It’s a populist government. It is putting Australia in a very vulnerable position if there’s a double dip around the world.
They need to get in charge of things, not only on the budget front but on so many other fronts – boat people, the Murray Darling problems. On every major front this Government has lost control.
JOURNALIST:
Should we put the people that run the banks in charge because they seem to know how to turn a profit?
ANDREW ROBB:
Well, certainly the Government has caused much of the problem. They stripped so much competition out of the market. That’s giving the four big banks the opportunity to do what they’re doing. If the Government was sensible and knew what it was doing, it would not have stripped all of that competition.
25 years of build up of competition within the financial sector has gone. That is a priority for the Government if we are to see pressure off interest rates, if we are to see pressure off families and off small business.
JOURNALIST:
There’s a class action started now against the banks, what do you say about that?
ANDREW ROBB:
Well our problem today, I think to focus on, has got to be what do we do about the endless, reckless spending and the fact that the budget, the Government’s budget, is spinning out of control. The surplus that they promised that was “non-negotiable” is a phoney.
They clearly misled the Australian population before the election so that they’d give the appearance of being a responsible, prudent Government. And now it’s all unravelling.
The mining tax is falling apart. It was always going to. The budget forecasts are falling apart. They always were going to. They’re now softening us up for the reality of the budget. What they can do, what is in their control, is to stop the reckless spending that’s going on. If they did that it would take pressure off interest rates and it would give less opportunity for the banks to take advantage of the circumstance.
JOURNALIST:
Isn’t that so-called reckless spending necessary to keep the economy chugging along?
ANDREW ROBB:
Well, you’ve got the Reserve Bank now, having made seven interest rate increases in a row on the pretext of slowing down the strength of the economy that’s coming out of China, and yet you’ve got the Australian Government with its foot on the accelerator spending, spending, spending.
$100 million a day being borrowed is not a good thing for the country. Keeping the country more and more into debt, getting the country more and more into debt, is not going to make this economy resilient in case there’s another downturn.
The Government’s responsibility is to keep Australia living within its means. At the moment, they’re spending recklessly, they’re borrowing recklessly, and they’ve lost control of the books. We’ve got to see a Government start to take some responsibility where they can.
JOURNALIST:
Inaudible
ANDREW ROBB:
This is a populist Government. They’ve been incapable of taking hard decisions with boat people, with the Murray Darling issue, and now on the spending front, any mini-budget is difficult, but if they want Australia to live within its means, if they want to ultimately take real pressure off interest rate rises, take real pressure off families, take real pressure of small and medium business, then they’ve got to take these hard decisions.
You can’t keep throwing money around like they are with ‘Cash for Clunkers’ and green loan programs and pink batts and wasteful spending within school halls and all the rest and expect it not to have consequences.
The consequence has been seven interest rate increases in a row. The Government can do something about it, must do something about it and must do something urgently.
Instead of swanning around overseas and dropping messages back here to soften people up for their mistakes, the Treasurer should be back here structuring a mini-budget next week, so that we can get this economy back on track.
Media Contact: Cameron Hill on 0408 239 521