Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

All three global ratings agencies—Fitch, Standard & Poor's and Moody's, which are not sub-branches of the Australian Labor Party and do not work for the cause of international socialism—have separately looked at our level of government debt and our level of budget deficit, and have judged it to be one of only eight countries in the world worthy of a AAA credit rating.

Again to the member for North Sydney, as he seeks to drill in on questions of the budget and budget integrity, how does he answer that proposition? I put it to him once during a television debate and all I heard was a bit of spluttering at the other end. We still have not had an answer to that simple proposition. It is not us saying it; it is the international credit agencies saying it. The reason for it is that it is true. The finances of this country are in first-class working order and he knows it.

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