Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. In the interests of levelling with the Australian people, would the Treasurer release immediately the revised economic forecasts which justify this $10.4 billion package?

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

I thought that the opposition did support the package, but obviously not. As the Prime Minister has said, as I have said and as the finance minister has said, the government will publish a full budget and economic update at MYEFO, which will be released within the next month. That is the reasonable thing to do, that is the sensible thing to do, and I can tell you it will not be published at 4.30 pm on Christmas Eve, because that was the practice of the former Treasurer, the member for Higgins. We will put it out there in plenty of time for there to be plenty of scrutiny, because we do believe in transparency. We will publish MYEFO within the next month. We will do that. It will be out there for all to see and we will do it in a way which does not disadvantage the opposition.