Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

Oh, what a feeling—a very, very generous one. Obviously, I do wish to make some comments today in relation to Appropriation Bill (No. 5) 2007-2008 and Appropriation Bill (No. 6) 2007-2008 and, in some respects, set the scene. The former Howard-Costello government, probably for the first time in this nation’s history, put the budget front-of-mind for the Australian community. In 1996 the Australian community realised that the former Keating and Hawke governments had left this country in an appalling mess. There was a $96 billion budget black hole, a black hole that they were—