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

I thank the shadow minister for his question, and it is a very important question. It gives me the opportunity to address debt and it gives me the opportunity to talk about why we are coming back to surplus and paying down debt.

When the global financial crisis hit we moved with a powerful stimulus to support our economy. Because we did that, hundreds and thousands kept their jobs and hundreds of thousands of small businesses kept their doors open. The consequence was that we, almost alone amongst developed economies, avoided a recession. Avoiding that recession is why we are in such a strong position now amongst developed economies in the world compared to just about anybody else. We avoided a recession. That is one of the reasons we have unemployment at 5.2 per cent and a strong investment pipeline and why opportunities are so big for our country into the future.

When that hit, it hit our revenues. Our revenues have been written down by $150 billion over five years. Those opposite expect the Australian people to believe that if they had been in our position they would not have done anything other than accept that revenue hit and they would not have moved to support our economy. The consequence of that would have been higher deficits, higher debt and higher interest payments, today. If they had been in power during that period of time, we would be sitting here looking at higher unemployment, higher debt and higher interest payments.

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