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

Yes they did. They have endorsed the application of our medium-term fiscal policy, which is as I said before the fastest fiscal consolidation since the early 1960s. The conclusions of this report are crystal clear, and I think I ought to quote the report in some detail. In this report the IMF is strongly endorsing the government’s commitment to fiscal discipline and to bringing our budget back into surplus three years early. That is what the IMF is doing. The report states:

The exit from the stimulus, which began this year, sees the budget back in surplus by 2012/13. If the recovery in Australia proceeds as expected, this pace of withdrawal is appropriate. This is faster than past consolidations in Australia and plans in most other advanced economies.

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While public debt is projected to remain very low by advanced economy standards, returning quickly to budget surpluses as the authorities intend will put Australia on firmer footing to deal with future shocks.

That is a very big tick from the IMF. But it is not just the IMF—Standard and Poor’s put out a report last week which said this:

Australia has one of the strongest fiscal positions globally, with a net general government debt burden less than half the level of the AAA rated median.

This is a ringing endorsement of the finances of the Australian government and the Australian people, and that is why this government have put at the very core of our economic agenda a very strong fiscal consolidation. It is a bit rich to be lectured on fiscal rectitude by those opposite, because they had a $10.6 billion costing con job at the heart—

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