Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Why wasn’t it done in the seventies? I will tell you why. The Commonwealth government never had the wherewithal to put $10 billion into the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. When we were carrying $96 billion of federal debt, we were spending nearly $10 billion a year in interest payments. Now that we have got rid of that, we have the capacity to invest in this infrastructure. This would not have been possible without economic management. Let me say that, whatever your objectives in relation to climate change, in relation to water and in relation to social objectives, you will not have the wherewithal to pay for them without economic management in this country, and that is what this government stands for.

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