Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Treasurer. I refer the Treasurer to the fact that under the previous coalition government, Labor’s $96 billion of government debt was paid off and the current government was left an additional $45 billion in net assets—a $141 billion improvement in the government’s accounts between 1996 and this year. Will the Treasurer confirm that, if the Labor Party’s $96 billion of debt had not been paid off, taxpayers would now be funding $8.6 billion in interest payments every year from the budget?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I absolutely welcome that question. This is coming from a political party that wants to vandalise the surplus in the Senate. Labor is the party that is saving and that has a disciplined fiscal policy. Those opposite are out there trying to vandalise the surplus up in the Senate. Their actions in the Senate put at risk so much. They put at risk vital investment in the future—which they would not make—via our investment funds. Investment in the future will do something about capacity constraints and put downward pressure on inflation and therefore put downward pressure on interest rates. Everything that we have seen from those opposite, most particularly the member for Wentworth, is a recipe for higher interest rates for much longer. That is what their program, if you could describe it as that, represents. We will take the responsible decisions. We will put in place the responsible fiscal settings, and that means fighting for our $22 billion surplus in that Senate and making sure that the economic vandalism of those opposite, if it succeeds, will be punished by the Australian people at the next election.