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

It was a question about fiscal policy, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I am answering it directly. Nothing could be more important to the peace of mind of the Australian people than a very sound fiscal policy. But that is not understood by those opposite.

The shadow Treasurer admitted on morning television that there was a $70 billion crater in his budget bottom line. He said it on TV, sitting beside the environment minister, and now he claims it did not happen. For the past two years this country has had to suffer the Leader of the Opposition going from shop to shop and town to town talking doom and gloom, talking our economy down and talking up a horror show wherever he has gone. But he has gone missing in action for the past week. He has been nowhere to be found for the past week. All we have had from the Leader of the Opposition for the past week is radio silence. After his interview with Lisa Wilkinson on Friday, he retreated. Perhaps there were things in his past that he did not want to talk about. Perhaps he was deeply worried about the political implications of what is going on in New South Wales and in Victoria.

See this speech in context