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

I thank the member for Longman for his question because all members would be aware that this is the last question time before the budget. It is good to receive so many questions about the economy from this side of the House—there have been so few from that side of the House. I do not think we have had a question on the economy from the Leader of the Opposition. I think there may have been two questions in six months from the shadow Treasurer.

The member for Longman asked me about the budget. The budget will be about capitalising on our recent successes, sticking to our fiscal strategy and continuing to build sturdier foundations for our economy. We do face substantial challenges. We saw that with the Intergenerational report. We have seen the government fronting up to the very big challenges of health reform and the ageing of the population. I can report something like two-thirds of all submissions in the budget process do relate to these challenges. I think we can all be confident that we can go on to meet these challenges because we are in a far stronger position than many other countries coming out of this global recession.

We do not have to go through the rubble of a recession to meet these challenges as so many other advanced economies are doing at the moment. We have preserved our skills base; we have preserved our capital base. That does put us in a very good position to deal with these challenges, so we are confident, but we are not complacent. The fact is that those opposite have no interest in these challenges. For example, the Leader of the Opposition has been in the job something like 108 days. Not only have we not had a single question about the economy but we have not had a single speech about the economy One hundred and eight days without anything substantial to say about the economy except that he has got a big, new tax. That is the only substantial thing in 108 days that the Leader of the Opposition has said about the economy.

When it comes to the shadow Treasurer, his record is not much better. He was not here last Thursday and I notice that he was off giving a speech at the Grattan Institute. I thought that we might find something that he has to say about the economy, but he said nothing about the economy in that speech at all. It was like a first year lecture on modern political ideologies: nothing about the economy, nothing whatsoever—but a bit of a bid, I think, to put himself over to the left of the Liberal Party and separate himself a little from the Leader of the Opposition. We have had two questions on the economy in six months—one in November and one in March—a stunning record.

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