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

I withdraw, Mr Speaker. They have been running around promising spending but they have been saying no to structural savings. They support spending on the one hand, but when we put up sensible proposals—ones which can build the strength of our financial system and direct more dollars to the health system—they say no. They have claimed in this House today that we did not put it before the Australian people. It was there for everyone to see in the pre-election fiscal outlook, which they did spend a lot of time studying until the Treasury discovered there was an $11 billion black hole in their estimates. Those opposite do not care about coming back to surplus because they are not up to running a $1.4 trillion economy. A $70 billion hole—but the only thing that Larry over there was concerned about was that Curly was going to leak the $70 billion figure.

Opposition members interjecting—

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