Senator CORMANN (Western Australia) (16:37): Labor members and senators are very divided. The Gillard Labor government is deeply dysfunctional and so obsessed with itself that it has forgotten what it is there for. They are there to provide good government for our nation. They are there to act in the public interest, to serve Australians, to respond to the challenges we face as a nation, and to lead the nation in maximising our opportunities. Instead, all we have had over the summer break are senior ministers at each other's throats and putting the knife into each other's backs. We have had Mr Rudd stalking the Prime Minister. We have had Mr Crean insulting Mr Rudd. We have had Mr Dick Adams from Tasmania making the observation that the Prime Minister has a credibility problem. Let me quote exactly what he said. He said: She has a bit of a credibility issue with some of the decisions that she's made. That is a bit like saying that Senator Arbib and Mr Shorten were a bit involved in the knifing of Mr Rudd, or that Michael Clarke plays a little bit of cricket. If ever there was an understatement that the Prime Minister has 'a bit of a credibility issue with some of the decisions that she's made', this is it. There has been such a plethora of self-obsessed, self-indulgent, self-centred commentary on the record and off the record from Labor members and senators on the other side that you wonder whether they have time left to think about what they are there for, which is of course to provide good government for our great nation. I will just give you a couple of examples at random. This is what Mr Rudd's colleagues say about him. We have the comment from Mr Crean that he is not a team player, referring to him as a 'prima donna'. We have got the comment from a senior Victorian ALP figure: Unfairly or not, Kevin killed the Labor brand. We have got the comment from an unnamed senior Labor Party source from Western Australia: Rudd destroyed our brand and boosted Colin Barnett all at the same time. We have got the comment from a Labor figure in New South Wales—perhaps that was Senator Thistlethwaite, or maybe Senator Arbib. Who knows, because they were not prepared to put their name to it? This is what was said: Our big mistake when he was rolled was to not show the public what a truly odd person Kevin is. The guy is a bully. He has some skills but leading the team is not one of them. I wonder, Senator Arbib, whether you will make a confession in this chamber here today and tell us whether you were the source of that particular quote in the Sydney Morning Herald. Here is another good one. This might have been said by Senator Arbib, or was it Senator Thistlethwaite: There are people that would rather chew their right arm off than go back to [Mr Rudd]. I see you smiling, Senator Arbib; it seems as if you recognise the authorship of that particular comment. Senator Arbib: It's not me. Senator CORMANN: Not to be outdone, there is a lot of vileness and poison and division targeted at the Prime Minister too. One factional boss who is loyal to Ms Gillard said yesterday: … there has been quite a shift over summer … she's in trouble. Another quote from another unnamed source from New South Wales—again note, Senator Arbib—said: 'She needs a flawless three months,' the factional boss said of Ms Gillard. How many factional bosses are there in New South Wales, I wonder, who would make a comment like that? 'She needs a flawless three months,' the factional boss said of Ms Gillard. 'Her danger zone is between Queensland and the budget.' Senator Arbib, you should tell this chamber whether you have actually put the Prime Minister on notice. The only obsession of this government that competes with the obsession that it has with itself is Labor's obsession with Mr Abbott and with tearing him down. We have seen in recent weeks the completely incredible turn of events where the Prime Minister's office initiated a rally against the Leader of the Opposition, which led to a security threat to the Prime Minister—an extraordinary turn of events. And to think that these are the jokers that are responsible for the good government of our great nation. In recent days the Prime Minister has said that she wants to shift the debate onto the economy. Senator Williams: Bring it on! Senator CORMANN: We say on this side of the chamber, Senator Williams: bring it on! In recent days we have seen the Prime Minister and Mr Swan continuing to try to trade on the strong record of the Howard government, the strong economic and fiscal inheritance left behind by the Howard government, and of course the greatest Treasurer we have ever had, Mr Peter Costello. There is one reason and one reason only why the Australian economy and our fiscal position is in so much better shape than other parts of the world and that is because the coalition left a strong economy and a strong budget position behind back in 2007. This government inherited a budget position with about a $20 billion surplus, with $70 billion worth of net government assets. And what has this Labor government done with that over the last four years? It has given us $167 billion of accumulated deficits and it has turned a $70 billion net asset position into $133 billion net debt position. It was Prime Minister Howard and then Treasurer Costello who paid off $96 billion of Labor debt between 1996 and 2007. So when you have got Labor Party people out there bragging about how 'our net debt position' and 'our deficit position' are not as bad as they are in other parts of the world, they should remember that it was not Labor which did the hard yards there; it was the Howard-Costello coalition government. What has this government been doing over the last four years? Over the last four years the Labor government here in Canberra has done exactly the same as what governments in parts of Europe have been doing for the last 30 or 40 years—that is, tax too much, spend too much, impose too much red tape and so it goes on. If we continue to go down the path that has been set by this Labor government, we will end up in the same disastrous position that Europe has ended up in. If we continue to go down this path that Labor has set for this nation—higher taxes, wasteful spending and excessive red tape—that is exactly where we will end up. That is, of course, why there is a desperate need for a change of government. The Howard government delivered genuine surpluses, paid off Labor's debt and delivered personal income tax cut after personal income tax cut. People across Australia know that whenever Labor are in government they stuff up our public finances, and people across Australia instinctively know that it always comes down to the coalition to fix up the Labor mess. Here we are: we had Minister Wong again today talking about the need for fiscal discipline. We agree with her on that. But let us have a look at what Labor does rather than what Labor says. You may remember that Labor delayed the release of the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook in order to avoid scrutiny by this parliament. The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, which is normally released in November, was released in December. Why? Because Labor was worried about the scrutiny that it would face here in this parliament. And we now know why: because by the time of the MYEFO release in December 2011 the deficit for this financial year, which we were told in November 2010 would be $12.3 billion and which by the time of the May budget last year was $22.6 billion, had gone up to $37.1 billion. The deficit for this financial year under this incompetent, divided and dysfunctional Labor administration has more than tripled in 12 months. From MYEFO 2010 to MYEFO 2011 the deficit for this year has more than tripled. And this is a government that wants to give us lectures about fiscal discipline and sound fiscal policy. This is a government that stuffs up our public finances whenever it gets its hands on the levers of Treasury. It does it again, again and again. That is, of course, why there has not been a surplus delivered by a Labor government since back in 1989-90. That is, of course, why people across Australia instinctively know that we need to change the government before we can restore our public finances. They know that it is the coalition that always fixes up Labor's financial mess.