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

The opposition has a very small problem. The fact is the IMF, the credit rating agencies and all responsible bodies around this country and around the world happen to think that our financial situation is one of the best in the developed world. So, trying to maintain this argument that somehow there is a problem with the modest level of debt we have, which is one-tenth of what occurs in the major developed economies, is simply farcical and speaks very loudly about the opposition's economic incompetence. We have taken on a modest amount of debt to protect our economy. We are coming back to surplus and building those surpluses to pay that down. That is what we should be doing—accumulating surpluses when growth returns to trend and implementing our fiscal rules. That is what this budget does. It brings the budget back to surplus and builds the surpluses over the years to build up the buffer that we need, because our economy is strong. That is precisely what we are doing.

Of course, our actions have been endorsed by the three major global rating agencies. Those on the other side of the House want to pretend that there have been no revenue losses from the global financial crisis, no revenue losses from the global recession and that our revenues have not been reduced overall by $150 billion. Of course, if they want to pretend that, I would hate to think what our level of debt would be now if they did not take the actions or go anywhere near the actions we took during the global financial crisis, because it would be far higher. If action had not been taken, unemployment in this country would be far higher and deficits and debt would be far higher. Of course, we took the responsible action and, having taken the responsible action, we are doing the responsible things: bringing our budget back to surplus, building those surpluses and paying down debt over future years. That is classic economic policy, which has been endorsed by the global agencies and endorsed by the rating agencies, and all that those opposite are doing here today is turning their economic credentials into a complete farce.

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