Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Member for Solomon for her question, and I can assure her and all members of this parliament that this is a government that will keep its commitments. The commitments we endlessly repeated before the election were to stop the boats, to scrap the carbon tax, to build the roads of the 21st century and to bring the budget back under control. These are the commitments we made, and these are the commitments we will honour. And isn't it so necessary that we get the budget back under control? What the Labor Party and members opposite did was to leave us a legacy of debt and deficit stretching as far as the eye can see. It was inter-generational theft. That is what they left us—$123 billion in cumulative budget deficit and $667 billion in projected debt. This is the debt and deficit disaster that members opposite left us. And members opposite knew they had a problem. That is why they went to the election promising $5 billion in spending cuts that they have walked away from. They have walked away from their own scant commitments to budget responsibility. The people of Australia did not elect us to make easy decisions; they elected us to make the tough decisions. They did not elect us to be cheapskate populists; they elected us to do what is necessary for our country, and we will.

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