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

Certainly. It brings me to the point that we will always support our economy when there is a threat to jobs and growth. Last year in the budget, what I outlined was the forecast for a whole range of indicators—such as growth and debt. I made the point very clearly then and outlined that we would bring these figures in within the debt cap that I outlined in last year's budget—and that remains. But there is a very clear choice here, because those opposite want to spread fear about debt. There is no doubt about that when we as a country have done so much better than just about every other developed economy in the world, because our priority was to support jobs and growth in our economy. We were opposed every step of the way by those opposite. If they would have had their way back during the global financial crisis, deficits would have been higher and so too would have been debt. Now, we are challenged again. The proposition that they are putting to the people of Australia is that, in the face of a revenue slowdown that we have seen, they would cut harder and hit jobs and growth.

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