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

I thank the shadow Treasurer for his question. He is acutely embarrassed by the jobs performance of our stimulus package. It is playing a vital role in supporting employment in the Australian economy. Both he and the Leader of the Opposition were acutely embarrassed when the national accounts figures came out the week before last, because what they showed was that it was our stimulus that was promoting growth, employment and business in the Australian community.

When you listen to the shadow Treasurer, you would think that there was some alternative. We have this dishonest campaign about deficits and borrowing when the truth is that we know that they would borrow not one cent less than us and that they would not pay it back one day earlier. We know that. Last Sunday week, there was an embarrassing performance by the shadow Treasurer with Laurie Oakes. Laurie Oakes asked him this:

But, if you’d been in government, you also would have lost $210 billion from your forward estimates wouldn’t you? So, do you concede that you would have had to borrow that amount if you were in government?

The shadow Treasurer replied:

No way Laurie, no way.

What a completely ridiculous claim: ‘There’s no global recession; it has no impact on the revenues. No way, Laurie; no loss of revenue at all.’ Laurie Oakes went on to ask him this very obvious question:

So you’d be spending $210 billion less over that period?

The shadow Treasurer replied:

No, no, not at all.

See this speech in context