Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

And of course the expenditure into Australian schools, the transformation of learning spaces which enables teaching to be done in a different way, is going to be part of tomorrow’s productivity because productivity is very largely defined by the skills and capacities of the Australian people, and there is nothing more important to those future skills and capacities than what is happening in Australian schools today. So it was the right thing to provide economic stimulus to support jobs. The member for Goldstein may have preferred to see more people unemployed. That was not our way. We believe in the benefits and dignity of work.

And now, of course, it is the right thing to engage in the biggest fiscal consolidation process since the 1960s to bring the budget to surplus in 2012-13 as promised. We promised it during the election campaign. We had our promises properly costed. We provided matching savings. What that showed is that we would keep the bottom line and bring the budget to surplus in 2012-13, and we will.

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