Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The budget in March delivered from this dispatch box by my predecessor had precisely $0 in savings on the spending side of the budget—$22 billion on Tuesday, $0 in March. And then on Tuesday night we banked 99 per cent of the temporary revenue surge that we got from higher commodity prices. In the budget in March, they banked 40 per cent—so 99 per cent versus 40 per cent. No wonder they don't have enough to show for their trillion in debt. We're told today that the Leader of the Opposition, in his speech tonight about the appropriations, wants to talk about the government's economic record. He takes very seriously his responsibility as the leader of the leftovers! In doing so, he has a rolled-gold opportunity tonight to fess up for the coalition record on the economy. Let's consider it for a moment. Their record on the economy is skills shortages holding the economy back. It's stagnant wages for a decade. It's weak productivity and business investment. It's an aged-care crisis. It's a trillion dollars in debt, with nowhere near enough to show for it. And it's this energy policy chaos which is making us more vulnerable to global energy shocks. What we're seeing in our energy markets right now—the blame for that rests squarely with Vladimir Putin. But the blame for making us more vulnerable to it rests with the member for Hume.

Opposition members interjecting—

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