Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What we see in this bill is the seeking of parliamentary approval for an additional $14.8 billion in 2013-14. The biggest item being sought here is $8.8 billion for the Reserve Bank, one of the largest contributors to this additional appropriation.

On Monday I said that what we need as economic objectives are things like low unemployment, low inflation, low interest rates and a balanced budget. In my view, they are more exciting objectives than growth, which is not an end in itself. The Treasurer came in, in question time, and attacked these comments about balancing the books, but what we see with this legislation is the coalition doing the exact opposite of what was suggested by its comments about a budget emergency: it is blowing out the budget deficit by nearly $17 billion.

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