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

I thank the member for McPherson for her question. Like everyone on this side of the House, she is very conscious of the promise we made to the people before the election: to build a strong and prosperous economy for a safe and secure Australia. If you want a stronger economy, you have to build a stronger budget and that is precisely what this government has delivered. Instead of debt and deficit stretching out as far as the eye can see, instead of $120 billion of cumulative deficits, instead of debt peaking at $667 billion, this budget brings us back to balance within four years. This budget reduces debt by almost $300 billion. This is an honest budget. It does not fake up a surplus by cooking the books and fiddling the figures. Above all else, this budget addresses the problem of dead money—the one billion dollars in interest repayments every single month that this Commonwealth is paying because of the Leader of the Opposition and members opposite.

Mr Pyne interjecting—

If we did not have the billion dollars in dead money thanks to Labor's debt and deficit disaster we could, as the Leader of the House says, build the north-south corridor in just one month. If we did not have this dead interest money we could upgrade the Gateway Motorway in Brisbane in just one month. In six months we could rebuild the Bruce Highway and in a little over a month we could do the range crossing at Toowoomba. In a month we could rebuild Hobart hospital. I know the member for McPherson, as an engineer and chairman of the public works committee, wants to get these things built. They will be built so much more quickly when we are no longer paying off Labor's debt. This is a budget that tackles the problems that members opposite left us. This is a government with a plan to make our country strong.

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