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

The seniors of Australia are very sensible people, and they know that governments, like businesses and like families, simply cannot continue to live beyond their means; that governments, like families and like businesses, should not be in the business of trying to deliver a cash splash with borrowed money. That is what the seniors of Australia understand.

The seniors of Australia, I believe, understand that this government was elected to deal with the debt and deficit disaster that members opposite created—a debt and deficit disaster embracing the six biggest deficits in Australia's history, $123 billion of prospective cumulative deficits over just four years, a debt projected to peak at $667 billion and an interest bill of $1 billion every single month just to pay the interest on Labor's existing borrowings. That is what the seniors of Australia understand. They understand that unless remedial action was taken, every single Australian would be saddled with a Commonwealth debt bill the equivalent of $25,000 per man, woman and child.

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