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

What we are seeing play out here today is an attempt by the opposition to put in place another fear campaign. I will make a couple of very, very clear points. This government makes no apology for putting growth and jobs first—absolutely no apology. It is the case that this government moved during the global financial crisis to support jobs and growth in our economy in the face of the worst global recession in over 80 years. And it is true that in that process we incurred some debt. But we did that to support jobs and growth. And what is the outcome of that process? Over 900,000 jobs created in Australia. Everybody on this side of the House is proud of that record because we understand the importance of the dignity of work. When an economy is challenged by a global financial crisis, what responsible economic policymakers do is support their economy.

We have had some Tea Party rhetoric today from the shadow Treasurer about levels of debt. Our debt is around one-tenth of the debt of other major advanced economies, and the benefit we receive from what the government did over the past five years is 900,000 jobs. But of course they ignore the facts. They cannot answer the question about why Australia is one of the few economies in the world with a triple-A credit rating and a stable outlook. The reason we have a triple-A credit rating and a stable outlook is that we have strong public finances.

The SPEAKER: I call the Manager of Opposition Business, who is not going to test my patience again, on a point of order.

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