Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The honourable member calls out that it has a cost to revenue, and of course it does. No-one is suggesting that it does not. The cost over the forward estimates has been set out in detail in Budget Paper No. 2, as it always is. The cost over the 10 years has been calculated, taken into account by the Treasury and built into their medium-term projections, as I said earlier today—including in this question time. It is not the practice of the government—or, indeed, governments—to release itemised elements of the medium-term projections beyond the forward estimates, and the honourable member understands that. Indeed, the Treasurer quoted his colleague Senator Wong, when she was finance minister, making precisely the same point. So, the honourable member is asking the government to provide an itemised figure from medium-term projections that governments do not provide and that have not been provided in the past, and which Labor governments have declined to provide.

Of course, this remarkable change in attitude is hardly surprising. After all, this is somebody who is trying to find some justification for, grasping at straws to fill, the enormous black hole that he has created. You see, Mr Speaker, the problem that the shadow Treasurer has is that he knows as well as everyone does that forecasting over 10 years has a great deal of uncertainty, as the budget papers always say.

Mr Husic interjecting—

Of course it does.

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