Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. In his National Press Club speech the Treasurer claimed that there is a fiscal consolidation in the budget of $23 billion. Given that, as a percentage of the economy, at no time has this government had spending as low as the last year of the coalition government and given that, over the next four years, the government is expecting to spend $76 billion more and collect $103 billion more in revenue, where does this claim for smaller government come from?

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