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

Certainly, Mr Speaker, because I was asked a question about debt. The shadow Treasurer on Sky News was asked about how he would go about achieving a lower deficit which contributes to debt. So I do believe that my answer is directly relevant to the question that I have received from the shadow Treasurer. This is what he said on Sky News when he was asked by David Speers about how the coalition would have a lower deficit. He said this:

There are always going to be other decisions, David, that we would have taken that would have not delivered the same budget deficit.

He then goes on to say this:

We said it was vitally important that you stimulate small business, and the way to do that, we said, was to change the superannuation guarantee arrangements.

Those changes to the superannuation guarantee arrangements that they had mentioned some time ago come at a cost of $5 billion. So his answer on Sky News as to how he would go about getting a lower deficit was to add to the deficit. That is just more ‘sloppynomics’ from Sloppy Joe to camouflage the fact that they need to have a deficit and debt scare campaign because they have no positive alternative policy for Australia.

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