25-October-2011
Portfolio Media Releases
E&OE
Subject: Gillard government lecturing Europe
QUESTION: Do you think that Julia Gillard should be doing more to pressure the EU to solve the financial crisis?
MR ROBB: I think it’s starting to get a little bit embarrassing that we’ve got a Prime Minister and a Treasurer lecturing Europe over not living within their means, when at the same time our Federal Government, Julia Gillard, will preside over $22 billion greater spending this year than we will get in tax revenue. This Government has recorded the three largest deficits in our history; has got the fastest growth in debt of any country except Iceland and Ireland, and yet the Prime Minister is lecturing Europe, I mean, give me a break.
QUESTION: So, what do you think that she needs to be doing then?
MR ROBB: Well it is embarrassing. What this Government should be doing, instead of trying to lay a case for an excuse 12 months down the track if they don’t deliver a surplus, instead of what is plainly obvious, this ploy to create an excuse, they should be attending to their own excesses. They should be seeking to live within their means. They should be looking after our own economic back yard, not lecturing the Europeans over which they’ve got absolutely no influence. They haven’t got the credibility to put forward a point of view internationally, and they’ve got every reason to try and look after their own back yard, and do what they should have been doing over the last two or three, four years, living within their means.
QUESTION: Isn’t it important that we do have some say over there? I mean obviously it’s going to impact on us.
MR ROBB: I would think that anything that the Gillard Government might think to say to the Europeans will be totally ignored. They have not got the credibility here. They have not been living within their means here in Australia. We are now more vulnerable than we should be in the face of some of these external shocks. This government, instead of looking for a diversion, they should be focussing on getting their own house in order.
ENDS