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

I thank the member for Throsby for his question, because the Australian economy is a clear stand out in the developed world. We supported growth during the worst global recession in over 80 years. We avoided recession and we avoided the destruction of jobs that occurred right across the developed economies. Of course, if those opposite had had their way at that time Australia would have gone into recession and we would have seen small businesses hit the wall and a substantial increase in unemployment.

Through all this period, as we have supported the economy we have put in place a responsible fiscal policy. We put in a set of fiscal rules to bring our budget back to surplus that are light years ahead of major advanced economies. In those rules we have of course been able to find room for Labor priorities: doubling investment in education and delivering a historic boost to the pension and fundamental reform to our hospital system. All of these responsible initiatives are part of Labor values. But what we are seeing on the other side of the parliament are Liberal values—the scorched earth approach to education and health.

Mr Pyne interjecting—

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