Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for O'Connor for his question. Like me, he will be pleased to know that, for the last 41 weeks, consumer confidence has been above the long-run average now—41 weeks. That is one of the longest runs we have seen since 2011, and it is important that we continue to provide that confidence in the economy, and key to that is returning the budget to balance.

A strong budget ensures that a government can guarantee the support for services that hardworking Australians and their families rely on, whether it is Medicare, whether it is hospitals, whether it is schools, whether it is the PBS or any of these measures. You need a strong budget supported by a strong economy to guarantee that those services that we enjoy today will be there in the future and will be there for future generations. Without a strong budget, that is not something that can be guaranteed. Secondly, a strong budget ensures that we can protect against the economic shocks that are present in a volatile global economy. We know the value of the strength of a budget from when the previous, Howard-Costello government ensured a strong budget which put Australia in a strong place to withstand the global economic shocks of the late 2000s.

The government is working to return the budget to balance by getting expenditure under control. When we came to government in 2013, this was our priority: getting expenditure under control. Expenditure was growing under Labor at a rate, according to PEFO, of 3½ per cent a year; and debt was growing at a rate of 34 per cent—34 per cent. Since that time, we have been able to reduce the growth in debt by two-thirds and we have been able to ensure that expenditure is growing now at less than two per cent. So we are getting expenditure under control and we are getting the growth in debt under control.

That has been not only well received by the ratings agencies—all three of them—that confirmed Australia's AAA credit rating in December, at the time of the midyear statement, but also reinforced by global debt markets, who understand that the strong financial management by this side of the House is worth investing in. We had three exceptional bond issuances over the last few months: in October of last year, $7.6 billion on the first 30-year bond, at a yield of 3.27 per cent; a second bond issuance in January of this year of $9.3 billion, with a subscription of over $15 billion; and, third, the most successful syndicated bond issuance by an Australian government just recently, on 23 February, for some $11 billion, with bids at over $20 billion.

This is a government whose strong financial management is being rewarded by the vote of confidence not only from Australian consumers— (Time expired)

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