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

I thank the shadow Treasurer for his question. The fact is that over the forward estimates we are saving $5 billion more than we will spend and, as I was indicating before, we will put in place the biggest fiscal consolidation—that is, return to surplus—we have seen since there have been records. We are applying a very strict fiscal discipline and not only will we do it across the forward estimates but we have indicated we will continue to do it until surpluses get back to one per cent of GDP.

The member for North Sydney goes on about the deficit this year and the deficit next year. It is very clear from all of the budget papers that we have had very substantial revenue write-downs, $16 billion worth of revenue write-downs over both of those years. That is what has contributed to the increased deficits in those years. Of course, the cause has been the global financial crisis and the global recession, and the other cause has been the natural disasters in Queensland, which have had a dramatic impact on growth, particularly this year. But the opposition, as usual, must have slept through the global financial crisis, the global recession and the natural disasters in Queensland, because they will never acknowledge the impact of those events on our budget line. They never want to acknowledge that impact because they know that, had they been in power during that period, they would not have moved to do what we did. Deficits and debt would be far higher right now and unemployment would be far higher now had they had been in charge of our economy during that period.

The member for North Sydney asked me about interest rates. I refer him to the statement on monetary policy issued by the Reserve Bank last Friday, which points out that the government is running a tight fiscal policy. It pointed that out and everyone can see it in the budget papers. If you go to the analysts, the market economists and all the rating agencies, they have all commented on the fact that the government are implementing its medium-term fiscal strategy on time. We are doing it and we are doing it successfully, and we are doing it because we have applied ourselves to a very strict fiscal discipline—not a fiscal discipline that those opposite applied when they were in government. I was asked a question about spending. Our spending will get down to 23.5 per cent of GDP, and that is lower than the average when those opposite were in government, bar for one year.

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