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

I thank the shadow Treasurer for that question, He certainly knows all about high-taxing government. He was a member of the highest taxing government in Australia's history. Tax to GDP peaked at 24.2 per cent under the Howard government. We are committed to keeping the tax-to-GDP ratio at or below the level that we inherited. The tax-to-GDP ratio is just 22.1 per cent in 2012-13. So I think by any measure we have demonstrated that we can put in place a very strong fiscal policy and that we can make the savings in our budget to fund our Labor priorities—and that is what we have been doing.

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