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

They can never get fired up about jobs in local communities. They can never get fired up about the people who are being cushioned against the global recession. What we just saw was the Hockey $300 billion debt. That is what we saw. He has admitted, and so has the Leader of the Opposition admitted, in the circumstances that this country finds itself in, that they would have to borrow as much as the government will have to borrow and they would not pay it off one day sooner. That is what they have confirmed, because if they are not confirming that, where is their alternative plan? What is the alternative fiscal policy? That is their alternative fiscal policy: a blank piece of paper. They have no alternative fiscal policy because they know that this government has had forced upon it, and this country has had forced upon it, a $210 billion revenue collapse. If they were going to do something different, what they would have to do is savagely increase taxes or savagely cut back services. They come into this House and will not nominate one saving they could make. What that means is that they would borrow every cent the government has borrowed and they would not pay it back one day sooner. They are complete frauds.

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