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

You have to give him points for trying. Our forecasts in this budget show the fastest fiscal consolidation in history and $22 billion worth of savings. The reason we are in a position to come back to surplus in 2012-13 is that we moved to support our economy during the global financial crisis and the global recession. If they had been in charge during that period, deficits would be far higher and debt would be far higher right now. Our deficits and debt are lower than one-tenth of the levels elsewhere in the advanced world because of the courageous decisions we on this side of the House took to support our economy. The consequence of that is that there is low unemployment in Australia at 4.9 per cent, going down to 4.5 per cent. If they had been in charge, the starting point of the budget would have been higher deficits and higher debt. What we are doing now is bringing our spending down through a very strict cap.

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