Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Why this House has absolute confidence in the Treasurer is because the Treasurer is engaged in day-to-day, week-to-week meetings in the Expenditure Review Committee of this government and cabinet cutting and burning the outrageous examples of waste and misallocation of public funds in which those opposite have engaged. The Deputy Prime Minister today has given you one example after another, one item of waste after another—$122 million worth of this outrageous self-indulgence in public outlays, all contributing to public demand and all therefore adding to the inflation burden in the economy. That is what the Treasurer has been doing. The Treasurer has also been engaged with me in how we advance a productivity agenda for this nation for the future, how we make sure that we engender long-term productivity growth through a human capital revolution, investing in skills and investing in infrastructure. These are the areas where this Treasurer has been engaged. The Treasurer has the absolute confidence of the House, the government and the parliament, because we are dealing with a record of mismanagement by those opposite, and they stand condemned.

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