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

There is only one crisis going on around here, and it is on the opposition front bench. They have a $70 billion crater in their budget bottom line. The shadow Treasurer went on television and confirmed it. The shadow finance minister has confirmed it publicly. They have a $70 billion crater and they want to talk about fiscal discipline! Well, they have come to the right place, because we are absolutely determined to keep in place the fiscal discipline that has been a hallmark of our government.

What we need at a time of global uncertainty is consistency and very sound economic policy. We are determined to keep Australians in jobs. What we did during the global financial crisis was put jobs and good budget management right to the forefront of our economic policy. We kept this country out of recession, and we were opposed by them every step of the way. The consequence of that has been the creation of 750,000 jobs. Our GDP is six per cent bigger than it was prior to the global financial crisis because we handled that global uncertainty with good budget policy and sound economic management. What we are seeing in the global economy—

See this speech in context