Katharine Murphy deputy political editor
theguardian.com, Wednesday 13 November 2013
Prime minister compares Labor party objection to raising debt limit to $500bn to Tea Party tactics in US shutdown
Abbott government will have numbers in the House of Representatives to increase debt limit to $500bn – but Greens and Labor will have numbers to amend the proposal in the Senate. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPIMAGE
The Abbott government is turning up the political rhetoric on its proposal to increase the debt ceiling, declaring Labor is acting like the Tea Party in Washington by arguing for a smaller increase than the one the Coalition proposes.
With the debt bill due for introduction in parliament on Wednesday, the prime minister hit breakfast television in an effort to pressure Labor to back down in its ambition to amend the debt ceiling legislation to achieve a lower limit.
The government wants to boost the current legislated limit from $300bn to $500bn. Labor says it will give the government $400bn.
The prime minister said on Tuesday the advice from Treasury was that peak debt would actually exceed $400bn.
Labor has said the government should publish the new economic forecasts, due next month, so the parliament has adequate information on which to base the decision. The shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, repeated that position on Wednesday morning.
The government will have the numbers in the House of Representatives to increase the debt limit to $500bn – but the Greens and Labor will have the numbers to amend the proposal in the Senate.
Abbott declared on Wednesday that Australia would breach the debt limit on 12 December unless Labor and the Greens folded.
“On December 12, Australia will be in breach, unless we get this legislation passed, and now it seems that Bill Shorten and his cohorts want to act like the Tea Party in Washington and bring on some kind of crisis for our country,” Abbott told the Seven Network.
“Well, they should accept that they got things wrong, they mucked things up and they should allow this legislation to deal with Labor’s debt legacy to pass through the parliament.”
Greens leader Christine Milne was, however, holding firm.
“The Greens will not support an increase in the debt ceiling to $500bn without more information on the state of the nation’s finances and a clear rationale from the Coalition as to why the increase is needed,” she said.
“We will join Labor to support a more reasonable increase to $400bn if the government refuses to come clean on the details to justify their massive increase in the debt limit,” she said on Wednesday.
“The prime minister played political games with the debt ceiling when in opposition, now he is expecting us to just swallow whatever he dishes up without knowing what’s what.
Labor like Tea Party on debt limit, says Tony Abbott | World news | theguardian.com
