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

I possibly should have studied that new shadow ministerial list that the Leader of the Opposition tabled earlier, but I do thank the Deputy Leader of the Opposition for her question. In answer to her question I would repeat the answer that I gave to the House yesterday, which is that we have a clear plan to bring the budget to surplus, we have strong fiscal rules and we are determined to bring the budget to surplus.

In coming to this task of bringing the budget to surplus in 2012-13, we will build on what we have achieved in the May budget. We have been determined to look for savings. We did that in the May budget, and of course we did that in the election campaign prior to the May budget. We do not bring to this task the $70 billion black hole which the opposition built up through their own fiscal incompetence. We are determined to bring the budget to surplus in 2012-13.

The Treasurer gave an economic statement about this matter yesterday. We have been explaining to people the turbulence in global markets. We have also been explaining to people that our economy has strong fundamentals and that as a nation we should be proud of those strong fundamentals because we built them together. We particularly ensured those strong fundamentals were held during the global financial crisis, where we had the combination of the reforms that this nation has engaged in over a number of decades, the decisive action of the government in providing economic stimulus and attending to banking issues, and the hard work of employers and employees and trade unions in the community. Through that national spirit and combined national work, we came out of the global financial crisis without going into recession—something we should all be very proud of.

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