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

A study done by the Minister for Communications demonstrated that that the ABC could more than deliver on its programming commitments with lesser funding. It was an excellent study and I make no apologies for making some sensible savings to the ABC once we realised that the ABC was more than capable of dealing with it.

Let me make it crystal clear to the member who asked the question: as we went into the election, members opposite claimed that the deficit was $18 billion. That is what they did. As we went into the election campaign they claimed that the deficit was $18 billion. The deficit for that financial year turned out to be $48 billion.

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

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