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

I would like to quote the credit rating agency Moody's. Moody's said about debt:

Moody's notes that Australian government debt remains among the lowest of all AAA-rated governments.

Of course that is the case. We have one of the best positions in the advanced world, and one of the reasons it is that low is that we moved to support our economy at a time of threat. Those opposite want to continue to pretend that the global financial crisis did not happen, that a global recession did not happen and that it did not wash through or touch our economy. It did, and it had a dramatic impact on revenues and it would have had a dramatic impact on employment if they had had their way. We moved to support our economy. We took on a modest level of debt to keep Australians in work and to keep the doors of business open, and Australia is all the better for it. We will come back to surplus in 2012-13. We will build surpluses, we will pay down debt and we will do that with a really healthy, strongly growing economy, which would not be the case if those vandals over there had been in charge.

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