Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Just won Lotto. We have the best budget position of all time. How could we stuff this up? How possibly can we stuff this up within 12 months? Again, it is interesting that the member for Blair spoke about the Whitlam government—the similarities are breathtaking. It is not just us who say that they inherited the best budget position of all time. There is a point I noticed the Treasurer did not mention yesterday on ‘Deficit Day’, as it will become known in this place—not the ‘fundamental injustice day’ that we all remember so well. Yesterday was ‘Deficit Day’. The OECD said on page 144 of their Economic Outlook that the recent budget measures—these are the budget measures that the Labor Party are taking great pride in, the 10.4 billion pump priming of the economy—were ‘made possible by the significant fiscal leeway built in the previous years’. I will repeat that: ‘made possible by the significant fiscal leeway built in the previous years’. Who built that fiscal leeway? It was the member for Higgins and the former Prime Minister. This government within 12 months has turned it around with big budget deficits and new taxes. That is what Labor stands for—big budget deficits and new taxes. That is what this bill does. It is a disgrace—12 months in.

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