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

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. In answer to the shadow Treasurer's question, the Deputy Prime Minister earlier today outlined the turbulence that there has been in global markets and the fact we are not immune from that even though, of course, our economy has got such strong fundamentals. What the Deputy Prime Minister made clear to the House is of course that it does have an impact, and when we update the forecasts in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook then we will update the impacts coming from that global turbulence that we have seen on markets and its potentials for impacting on global growth. The Treasurer has also made the obvious and common sense statement that impacts on global growth and potential impacts here make it more challenging for us to bring the budget back to surplus, but we are absolutely determined to do so and we expect to do so.

We are in a very different position coming to this task as compared with the opposition. We are in a different position because we have shown fiscal discipline throughout and we have adhered to a clear set of fiscal rules. That of course meant that when we went to the last election campaign we had all of our policies properly costed and we found offsetting savings for the new expenditures that we promised to the Australian people. The opposition did not take a similar approach and found itself in an $11 billion black hole. Now of course, since the election campaign, that $11 billion black hole has worsened to $70 billion. The shadow Treasurer has staked his reputation on the statement that he can find savings, cutbacks, to equal this $70 billion. He said very boldly—

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