Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. In our five-point plan to combat inflation, to tackle the inflationary pressures in the Australian economy, we made it very, very clear that we would allow the automatic stabilisers to work. It is very important that we put in place a fiscal policy that backs up the monetary policy which is put together by an independent Reserve Bank board. And because, as the Minister for Finance and Deregulation was saying, spending has been out of control, we have got to bring it back into control. We have had the fastest increase in spending in the past four-year period out of any four-year period in the past 15 years. That expansion of Commonwealth demand simply has to be brought under control. That is why we have said that we will set an objective of a surplus of at least 1.5 per cent of GDP in our next budget.

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