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

As I have outlined to the House earlier today, we have put in place a very strict fiscal discipline. And we are adhering to the strict fiscal discipline. We have made cuts—some of them have been painful—and we have restrained spending right across the forward estimates. Not only that, but, as the finance minister was saying before, we intend to do that and extend that out until the budget comes back to one percentage point of GDP.

We are doing something that those opposite were utterly incapable of doing, particularly at the height of a boom. We have a strict fiscal discipline in place, which has brought this budget back to surplus in three years—and three years early. And we have halved debt. We have put forward a credible plan. It is so ironic for those opposite to ask a question like that. When are they going to bring the budget back to surplus? Can they answer that question? We look forward to Thursday night for a few answers from those opposite.

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