Private Members' Statement
Mr ANOULACK CHANTHIVONG (Macquarie Fields) (15:26:19) — Abraham Lincoln, who is the greatest United States president of all time, once said, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time”.
No words are ever more true than when it comes to the Liberal Party, its economic philosophy and its political spin when compared to the facts.
When it comes to public economics and finances people should not listen to what the Liberals say. They should look at what they actually do.
Taxpayers have been sold economic spin—a brazen untruth—that is not true and has never been true. Generations of Australians have been told and sold a furphy.
At both Federal and State levels the Liberal Party is guilty of perpetuating the greatest economic myth of all time.
The Liberals would have us believe that they are better economic managers of the public purse. They continually shout their economic war cry of cutting debt and deficit disaster.
Debt and deficits were evidence of economic incompetence and mismanagement. Well, well, well, how the economic mighty have fallen based on their own measurement.
In all reality, the Liberal economic mantra is just a cheap myth. The best way to expose a myth is to compare it to the facts because the facts never change.
The fact is the Liberal Federal Government is responsible for the biggest post-war deficit this country has ever seen or ever will see—a budget deficit of $213.7 billion, which is the largest in our history.
Total spending as a share of gross domestic product remains 2 percentage points higher than revenue out to 2030-31 or borrowing $40 billion annually.
The fact is that national gross debt will reach a trillion dollars next financial year and the fact is this debt will grow to $1.7 trillion by 2031.I repeat: $1.7 trillion.
My argument is not about the validity of expansionary fiscal policy when it is required to sustain and support our economy because of unforeseen exogenous shocks. My argument is about double standards and economic fallacies. The facts shed light on the hypocrisy and deliberate mistruths of the Liberal Party and its economic mantra.
In dealing with the 2008 global financial crisis, gross debt under Labor was approximately $60 billion and 12 per cent of GDP.
Labor economic policy, delivered through expansionary fiscal stimulus, saved jobs, provided confidence to the market and grew our economy.
But what did we hear from the Liberals? "Debt and deficit disaster", they yelled. "Wasting taxpayer money", they cried.
So what do they call a national gross debt that is 30 times higher at $1.7 trillion and 55 per cent of GDP? I call it Liberal Party economic hypocrisy and economic facts catching up with fiction.
Now let me look at the facts in New South Wales.
The fact is that the Treasurer will unveil a New South Wales budget next month.
The fact is the budget has a huge deficit owing to an expected downturn of $3.4 billion in GST revenue.
Only last year, the Treasurer stood in this Chamber and proclaimed that enduring wealth for the State was based on negative net debt and growing net worth.
We all know that selling public assets on the cheap is what the Liberals do best. They spin it as intelligent economic thinking but it in fact is really just a dumb deal at taxpayers' expense that weakens the public's financial asset base.
The Treasurer failed to mention that privatisation means net debt will always be higher than if assets remain publicly owned.
Not long ago the Liberals' chant was always "smaller government". The Treasurer said, "Reducing wages and raising taxes should be levers of last resort—not default options of first opportunity".
And yet one year later, that is exactly what the Liberals have done. They have gone after the wages of our frontline workers because somehow an increase in wages and spending makes no positive economic contribution.
Nurses, teachers, police officers, firefighters and the public transport workforce are all caught up in the hypocritical crossfire of the Liberal Government.
But some were exempt. The CEO of Infrastructure NSW got a $65,000 pay rise. Three executives got a $30,000 bump. And let us not forget the icare executives and their multimillion-dollar salary bill and the $300,000 hiring cost of a US Republican operative working in the Treasurer's office—making the Treasurer's office big spenders again.
This State's Liberal Treasurer is predictable. His budget next month will adopt the same trickle‑down economics.
The Liberal economic philosophy is a sham. The Liberals have been exposed as economic snowflakes who disappear when the light of transparency and facts is shone. It is not about smaller government. It is about effective government.
But let me finish with Churchill's words:
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.
And in the end, with the Liberal $1.7 trillion debt, “There it is”.
