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

The member for Goldstein is at war with the facts yet again. I make this point: we have a triple-A credit rating, and that is not delivered to many countries in the global economy. We have received that rating from the three major global rating agencies, and we have a stable outlook. The claim from over there is that we have always had it, but we have not. This is a reflection of the underlying strength of our economy. But, sadly, they are so unqualified to run an economy that they come in here day in, day out and they go out into the community and talk down our economy—they talk down the resilience of the Australian economy, they distort the facts. It is sad that this is what has happened to the once great Liberal Party of Australia, populated now by the cranks and crazies of the Liberal Party who do not accept the basic facts of modern economic life.

I was asked before about the surplus. I said last year, straight out, that because of revenue write-downs it was unlikely we would come to surplus in 2012-13. I do want to make this point, and I want to make it clearly: when the facts change, so do responsible governments. The stakes are really high, because when conditions in the international economy change the livelihoods of millions of Australian workers are on the line. What they want is a government that has the competence to make the judgements for jobs and growth. This government has got the competence to make the judgements for jobs and growth and you have proven during the last five years that you do not have that competence. You do not have that understanding. You do not have the knowledge of our economy and you do not know what you are doing, because the figures you have put forward today about tax levels are just wrong.

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