Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

These people cannot keep their budgets in surplus. It is absolutely amazing. If you cannot run surpluses in the circumstances Australia is now in, you will never be able to run surpluses, and that is what we find with seven of the eight state and territory Labor governments around this country.

I am proud that, despite the opposition of the Labor Party throughout our period in government to return fiscal rectitude to the Commonwealth, we have one of the best records in the Western world in our budgetary position. I would also just add to that, while Senator Carr and others take issue with this: what is the federal Labor Party talking about? In relation to just about all of the spending commitments which we have made, they say: ‘Me too. Oh yes, we’re in there; we want to spend that too. No worries, we’re right alongside you,’ but they have a whole lot of promises on top of that. That is where the Financial Review today is quite misleading in its suggestion about our spending, because it has not allowed for the fact that the Labor Party want to spend virtually all that we are proposing, plus some. Whenever Mr Rudd is faced with a policy issue, he throws a $500 million fund at it: ‘There’s a housing affordability crisis; let’s have a $500 million fund. We should have green cars; let’s have a $500 million hybrid car fund. It would be nice to have clean coal; let’s have a $500 million clean coal fund.’ That is three $500 million funds and we have not even got to the start of the campaign. So do not lecture us about fiscal rectitude.