Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

And as we know, member for Griffith, this is a historic effort by you. John Howard inherited a deficit of $14 billion and a net debt of $83 billion when he came into government in 1996. Eleven years of coalition budget control turned this nation's budget position around completely and got Australia's finances back on track, so much so that the next, Labor, Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, inherited a surplus of $19.8 billion and net assets of $29 billion. And what did Labor do with that wonderful financial position?

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