Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Treasurer, how has the Albanese Labor government begun the task of getting the budget back on track in its first 12 months, and how will it continue to strengthen the nation's finances for the benefit of all Australians?

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

Thank you to the member for Lingiari for her question, and also for the characteristically wise contribution she made to the debate earlier on today. A hallmark of the first year of the Albanese government has been responsible economic management, working through our challenges in a considered and methodical way, and a key achievement over the first two budgets of the government has been putting the nation's finances on a more sustainable footing.

Our strategy has had three parts in both budgets: spending restraint, savings and modest but meaningful tax reform. Some examples of this are that, over two budgets, we banked 87 per cent of the upward revision to revenue, compared to the 40 per cent banked by those opposite and the 30 per cent banked by the Howard and Costello government. Real spending growth in the budget averaged just 0.6 per cent on average over the forward estimates. We found $40 billion of savings and reprioritisations over two budgets, compared to precisely zero dollars in the March 2022 budget handed down by those opposite. The net spend in our budget this time around was half as big as the last budget handed down by those opposite.

What this responsible, methodical approach means is that we are forecasting a small surplus this year, which would be the first in 15 years and which represents a dramatic turnaround from the $78 billion deficit that was being forecast by those opposite. We have more than halved the cumulative deficits over the forward estimates, and we are reducing the forecast debt by around $300 billion over the decade. This means that we avoid about $83 billion in interest costs alone. None of this would be possible if we had taken the approach of those opposite. If we had spent like they did and banked like they did, we would have seen a deficit of around $40 billion this year instead of a small surplus.

Now, we know the job isn't finished. We know that there's more to do. It will take more than two budgets, it will take more than one parliamentary term, to clean up the mess that we inherited—that was left to us by those opposite. And we know that a stronger budget isn't an end in itself. We weren't flogging 'Back in black' mugs on budget night like those opposite, because we know it's a foundation—a foundation for the support that we want to give people who need it, a foundation for our investments in the future growth of our economy, and it's a buffer against international uncertainty as well. This is not the time for the rorts and waste and mismanagement and incompetence which characterised 'the wasted decade'. It's a time for responsible, methodical economic management which has put the budget on a stronger footing for the future, and that's what we're providing.