Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

The question I was asked was about growth projections and the significance for sectors of the economy that are particularly important to the future of the Australian economy, especially the mining sector, and how this connected with the government’s economic policy. What I am trying to explain to the member for Wentworth, who amazingly was described the other day by a journalist as one of the more numerate members of this House, is that the critical commitment of this government is to get under control the inflation problem that was left by the former government, and that means getting government spending under control. It means getting rid of the sort of nonsense that we inherited, some of which we cut out of the budget a couple of weeks ago and more of which we are going to cut out. It means cutting government advertising. It means getting rid of the regional rorts. It means getting rid of the plethora of spending programs, all of which were contributing to a pattern of increased government spending, 4½ per cent in real terms—

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