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

I thank the honourable member for his question, though I note again that every opportunity is used in question time to try and talk the Australian economy down when the government’s strategy is to build the Australian economy up. That is the difference. We have a nation-building strategy for recovery; they have a negative strategy to talk the economy down because they have concluded that it is in their political interest to do so. As is standard practice, the budget does not attempt to forecast future movements in rates. Rates for current government bonds are, on average, around four per cent. This is a standard assumption that has been used for some time and it is the same methodology used under the previous government. Treasury has adopted the long-run average of the 10-year bond rate based on what has prevailed over the past decade, namely, six per cent. That is what we based our projections on in the budget. We stand by the budget papers.

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