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

On this side of the House, when we have framed budgets, we have adopted conservative forecasts, particularly when it comes to issues of commodity prices. We revised our commodity price forecasts down, particularly for iron ore, which we revised down to $55 a tonne. When prices excelled way above that over that period of time, we maintained those conservative forecasts because we knew that you couldn't turn your budget into a speculator when it came to iron ore prices.

That is in stark contrast to what the member for Rankin's old boss and mentor did when he locked in iron ore prices at $180 a tonne and then spent all the money that went with that fanciful revenue and drove the budget deeper and deeper into deficit. We all remember the mining tax. It didn't raise any money, but they still spent it anyway. When you're looking for stable and certain budget management, people don't look to the Labor Party. They've learned from experience.

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