Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for referring to me as a gentleman, Minister. Given we have both shared children time at the Powerhouse Museum, we both understand those pressures. Minister, I refer you to table 6, statement 3 on page 13 of Budget Paper No. 1. It shows that policy decisions since the 2009-10 budget have increased net spending by $5.9 billion. That is the sum of policy decisions for the year 2009-10 through to 2012-13. That figure includes new spending measures, new taxes and savings initiatives. It shows that all of the new taxes have been spent, all of the savings initiatives have been spent and, on top of that, $5.9 billion has been spent for good measure. New policy decisions have not contributed in net terms a single cent to reduce the budget deficit, so the question is: how are they going to reduce the budget deficit?

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