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

Every time members opposite make untrue statements, it is an opportunity for the government to repeat the truth. The truth is that pensions go up now, they will continue to go up in the future and they will always go up. They will always go up under this government. What will not continue to go up under this government is debt and deficit. The reason we needed to make the changes we have made in this budget is that, as things were—with the debt and deficit disaster that members opposite had bequeathed this nation—so much that we cherish, so much that we value and so much that makes us special as a country was becoming unsustainable. It was simply becoming unsustainable.

When you are borrowing $1 billion every single month just to pay the interest on Labor's borrowings, you have to make some tough decisions. That is what this government was elected to do. We have not shirked the tough decisions. We have done precisely what the people of Australia asked us to do—to put this country back onto a sustainable path to a surplus.

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