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

I reject the premise of the question entirely. This government has a AAA credit rating from the three major global rating agencies with a stable outlook. If you go through the reviews of the budget, and most of the analysts agree, you will see that people appreciate that our support for jobs and growth is absolutely fundamental to our future prosperity. There is only one threat to that, there is only one threat to confidence, and that is the approach of the Leader of the Opposition and those opposite. They have said very clearly that they will take an axe to jobs. Just because the global economy took an axe to our revenues does not mean that we should take an axe to jobs and growth. But that is the position of the Liberal Party in this House. The position they are putting forward is European-style austerity policies. This was repeated again by the shadow Treasurer yesterday in a speech.

See this speech in context