Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. This morning in a radio interview the Prime Minister said, 'I freely admit that a couple of pre-election commitments we have not been able to keep.' But today in The Australian it was reported that the Prime Minister had told the member for Longman that there were no broken promises, in an expletive-riddled exchange. As part of this new era of good government and consultation, when will the Prime Minister admit there are broken promises and apologise to the Australian people?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When I gave the answer in question to the member for Longman, it was absolutely true. But there were subsequent developments. I absolutely accept that the commitment that I gave—standing on the side of the Penrith Panthers home ground the night before the election—not to cut the ABC, we have broken that. And frankly, it is just as well we did, because the ABC had not been subject to an efficiency dividend since 1996.

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Sydney will desist or leave!

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A study done by the Minister for Communications demonstrated that that the ABC could more than deliver on its programming commitments with lesser funding. It was an excellent study and I make no apologies for making some sensible savings to the ABC once we realised that the ABC was more than capable of dealing with it.

Let me make it crystal clear to the member who asked the question: as we went into the election, members opposite claimed that the deficit was $18 billion. That is what they did. As we went into the election campaign they claimed that the deficit was $18 billion. The deficit for that financial year turned out to be $48 billion.

Ms Plibersek interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Sydney is warned!

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is a $30 billion black hole that members opposite created, that members opposite should have known about, and that members opposite should have fessed up to before the election. Faced with the budgetary position that we inherited from the former government, it was absolutely vital that we make some sensible further savings, and sensible further savings are exactly what this government has delivered.