I rise tonight to comment about the so-called stimulus package also; as a member of the Senate Standing Committee on Economics I think it is important that I do. I also put on the record that I have never supported any of the stimulus packages, even the first one. It is clearly on the Hansard that I noted that position.
I did not support them because they are a ridiculous and profligate waste of money that have increased our debt load and will have to be repaid. I did not support them because Australia still had the capacity at that point in time, with three per cent interest rates, to further reduce interest rates. It was a position which was not the same as that of other nations in the world, who had around a zero per cent interest rate, so they only had the fiscal lever left—they did not have the monetary lever.
I do this also as the only accountant in this place, so I am very much attuned to this, as opposed to the so-called blackboard economics that Senator Cameron was talking about. I actually lived, breathed and made my money by dealing with this sort of problem. Our nation now has, by reason of a fiscal stimulus package, a massive debt that has to be repaid. If you believe the proposition that the fiscal stimulus stimulated the economy, then of course you have to believe the proposition that paying it back and taking that money out is obviously going to have a huge negative effect on the economy. But you are going to pay back more than the fiscal stimulus: you are going to pay back the interest on it as well.
Let’s look at what we could have done as an alternative. If we had stayed out of the economy at that point in time and, instead of going in and inspiring the dollar to appreciate, had taken the interest rates down and tried to devalue the dollar, then a lower dollar itself would have acted as a stimulant instrument in the economy and started driving the economy forward. But oh, no—they would not do that. Why did Labor not do that? Because the IMF told them that it was not the right way to go.
Of course, the IMF was talking to a whole range of nations that were in a different position to ours. Ours is predominantly an export-type nation. So this government has gone in and has borrowed up to the hilt. It has stacked us up with debt to the eyeballs so that we could go out on some spending spree and have the stimulus of the nation spread across the carpet on Christmas Day with ‘made in China’ written on the back. That is what the Labor Party has delivered to us as an outcome. Then they have the gall and the hide to say that their stimulus package is what kept us out of recession.
Senator Cameron—It’s got under your skin!
Senator JOYCE—I can hear Senator Cameron going on now, because he knows I am right. He knows I am right, because they have not got a clue how to run the show. This is where it started: $21.6 billion in cash we had in the bank before you fools turned up. Since that point in time we are now $110 billion in debt and the Labor state governments are $170 billion in debt. Debt up to our eyeballs! And what have we got to show for it? I will tell you, ladies and gentlemen of Australia: pink batts. We have got ceiling insulation in the roof for the rats and the mice to urinate on. That is what they have given us.
What else did they give us? Nine hundred dollar cheques so you could buy a plasma screen right near you, made from Seoul in Korea or made in Taiwan—
Senator Cameron—You are incompetent, Barnaby!
Senator JOYCE—not made in this nation, putting your workers out of a job, Senator Cameron. You are supposed to be looking after the working man, Senator Cameron, but oh no, you could not do that. And then you get upset.
Look at the ridiculous position they have now put us in. We are in a position of arbitrage and they created it; a position of arbitrage, where our interest rates are higher than the United States interest rates. They are going up, and you are forcing them up. That arbitrage itself is forcing up interest rates; it is putting pressure on every Australian working family—every per cent this interest rate goes up. It costs you $5,000 per per cent for bad Labor Party management: $5,000 per per cent per house facility for bad Labor Party management. This is what we have got.
What did you get for your $110 billion worth of debt, Australia? What did you get for your $170 billion worth of debt, states? What did they give you? They gave you high interest rates, they gave you a collapsing economy and they gave you a person with no idea. They are following the IMF and this is what we get. We have got higher interest rates forcing up. Now they are trying to explain to people that higher interest rates are what they are looking for. They are using higher interest rates as a recommendation for their government. That is what we have got: higher interest rates as a recommendation of the Labor government.
How long did it take them to get us to this position? They are not even through their first term. So now we have the position where we have got a major overhead on our economy that is going to suck the blood out of our economy. If we look at the stimulus package itself, if we had built some constructive assets with the money they wasted—even if they had built a pipeline to take the water out of the north and take it to the south, and if those pipes had rotted in the paddock, we would have got more stimulant out of that than what they delivered to us: no aggregate increase in our economy.
Then Mr Swan comes up and says, ‘I have saved you from the recession.’ The effect of the stimulus package was 0.8 of one per cent, but exports went up by 20 per cent. They say that their 0.8 per cent is better than the 20 per cent increase in exports. They say that their stimulus apparently put coal on ships, it put wheat on ships and it did all these marvellous things. Their stimulus did nothing but load you up with masses of debt! And now we have got a dollar that is appreciating because we have got an arbitrage in the interest rates. We have to attract money into the economy; but do not worry—it will turn around. In about May next year it will all turn around—the dollar will meet a point of equilibrium and it will start to fall over. What will we get as it falls over? Interest rate pressure on interest rate pressure. The Australian people can thank the Labor Party and that is why they are busting themselves to get to an election before it all goes pop. We know that is going to happen.
To add to this wondrous mix of Labor Party management, what have we got? The ETS. How are you going to prop up the parlous state of the finances? Where are you going to get the money from to pay for the interest bill? Where is that going to come from? It is going to come from the emissions trading scheme, this moral bulwark that they move out. They are going to cure the climate. They have stuffed up the books but apparently they can cure the climate. Today we had the Labor Party backbenchers talking about sea level rises. Apparently the ETS, like King Canute, is going to solve the tide. They can do everything! They are amazing! They are unstoppable! They are saving the tide and they are saving the climate but they are stuffing up the books. They could not run a chook raffle in a pub on a Friday night. They are beyond low contempt—they are hopeless.
We will wait. Every day you can ask, ‘How big is the debt today?’ It goes up and up; a billion dollars per week, Australia.
Government senators interjecting—
Senator JOYCE—In they come—they are coming in because they know it is right. They are just like ferrets. They are running out of their little barrow and coming down to the chamber to try and protect their dear leader and the Treasurer. This is a sore point for the Labor Party. This is a sore point—their complete lack of acumen. Have you got one person who has ever run a business over there? One? One of you?