Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that, despite all the cuts since this government was elected and despite all the years this government has wasted on wrong priorities, gross debt will still blow out to a record half a trillion dollars on this government's watch?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The honourable member went to the last election promising $16 billion greater deficits. That was his policy. He went to the election promising higher deficits and more debt. The Labor Party has opposed again and again our efforts to bring the budget back into balance. Again and again they left us with a massive deficit. They left us with a structural deficit and now they stand in the way of budget repair, reckless to the consequence of their waste in office.

One of my colleagues observed that the honourable member should win a prize for chutzpah with that question. He really should. Never have I seen somebody so responsible for so much debt stand up and suggest that we are doing anything other than inching it down. We have brought this budget back into a form where it is under control, and honourable members will see at 7.30 tonight, when the Treasurer presents the budget, further progress as we deliver the fairness, the security and the opportunity and as we demonstrate that we will live within our means and not fling, as Labor did, a mountain of debt onto the shoulders of our children and grandchildren.