Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last night, Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down a budget built to help the people of Hawke. It will deliver cheaper child care and real relief on energy bills, and it makes it easier to see a bulk-billed doctor. It is a responsible and practical budget that delivers the first surplus in 15 years. Hockey, Morrison and Frydenberg couldn't do it, but Albanese, Chalmers and Gallagher could!

The Leader of the Opposition says our surplus is only thanks to the previous government, and the member for Hume says a drover's dog could have done it. So I'm left asking myself: why didn't they? How did those opposite pull off the spectacular feat of leaving the country in a trillion dollars of Liberal debt while failing to deliver a single budget surplus and having nothing good to show for it? We know the answer. It's because those opposite, with their born-to-rule mentality, saw the Treasury benches as their right, not a privilege. So they filled successive budgets with rorts, waste and unproductive spending to give jobs to their mates and to sandbag their seats while they neglected communities like mine. But last year the people in our electorates voted for a better future. I'm so proud that this budget, and the Albanese Labor government, is delivering on that better future every single day.

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