Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We all love doughnuts, absolutely, but we on this side of the House have been able to deliver two surpluses because of the spending restraint that we have shown. And, on the spending restraint that we have shown, 97 per cent of revenue upgrades have been banked—put back into government coffers. That's a responsible measure, a responsible step, that this government has taken. How much were those opposite able to bank when they were in government? Only 44 per cent, because they were too busy spending like drunken sailors.

Anyone who has a mortgage—and many of us on this side of the House have mortgages that we're trying to pay off—will tell you that the faster you pay down your debt, the less interest you have to pay. Because of the hard work that we have put into this budget to show spending restraint—and bear in mind that we did inherit a trillion dollars worth of debt from those opposite—we will save $80 billion in interest repayments, and that is a significant saving for all Australians.

I want to quickly end with all the important cost-of-living relief measures that we have put in place. The first is energy bill relief, and that builds on the energy bill relief that we have already given to concession card holders. How much would they have gotten under those opposite? Big fat doughnut again—zero—because they voted against the energy bill relief last time around, and all indications are that they're not going to support it again this time around. The second is tax cuts. If you are someone who is earning $40,000 a year, how much would you have received had we stuck with the opposition's stage 3 tax cut plan? Big fat doughnut again—zero—whereas you'll be $650 better off under us.

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