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

we took important steps to try and clean up the mess that we inherited. We turned those two big Liberal deficits into two big Labor surpluses. We found almost $80 billion in savings. We showed spending restraint because we knew that, if we got the budget in better nick, we would help the governor and the Reserve Bank in their fight against inflation—our fight against inflation. Governor Bullock has acknowledged that our two surpluses are helping in the fight against inflation. So I make the same point again.

I also repeat the point that I made earlier, which is that the worst thing for any responsible decision-maker in our economy to be contemplating right now is $315 billion in secret cuts. The reason why they haven't come clean on that is that it's a recipe for recession. Theirs is a recipe for recession.

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