A shameless con

“This is another big taxing, big spending Labor Budget, with no serious reform,” said the Federal Member for Mitchell, Alex Hawke.

“The Government has not taken a single tough decision to rein in its reckless and wasteful spending.

“The Budget’s return to surplus relies upon a great big new tax on Australia’s resources sector, not tough decisions. Kevin Rudd’s mining tax is a dagger to the heart of the Australian economy, putting major projects at risk and sending jobs offshore.

“Mr Rudd and Mr Swan want to sacrifice Australia’s future economic prosperity to improve the numbers in this Budget’s bottom line.

“Spending in this Budget will increase by $26 billion over the next three years relative to last year’s record spending forecast. The Government will have to borrow over $700 million a week to fund its reckless and wasteful spending – putting upward pressure on interest rates and the cost of living for Australian families in the Hills,” Mr Hawke said. 

“The peak debt bill of $93.7 billion will be the amount owed by the Australian people to pay for Kevin Rudd’s spending spree.

“The Budget also exposes the costs of the Government’s waste, mismanagement and policy failures.

“There has been a $1 billion Budget blowout as a result of Kevin Rudd weakening Australia’s borders and $1 billion will be spent to fix Labor’s tragic home insulation mess,” Mr Hawke said.

“The Budget confirms that Kevin Rudd’s health policies will be about more bureaucrats and not better services. The Government will spend around $500 million to establish new layers of Commonwealth bureaucracy. In less than a month, Kevin Rudd has broken his promise of no net increase in health bureaucrats,” Mr Hawke said. 

“Having broken his election promise and built just two of 36 GP super clinics, Kevin Rudd is now asking the Australian people to trust him when he says he will build 23 more.

“The Labor Budget does not invest a single additional dollar in Australia’s major road networks.

“And in an undisguised election campaign strategy, the Government will spend $126 million on print, radio and television advertising,” Mr Hawke said.