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

As Senator Coonan said, economic vandalism—like we have never seen before. I am sorry, I am doing a Senator Wong: I am pointing, and I will not do that. The former government were very careful to ensure that, on behalf of the Australian people, we actually paid that $96 billion back. Currently, there is an expectation from the Australian people that all governments will be responsible. We set that up 12 years ago and we will continue to do so. You would think that an incoming government that had been left with no net government debt, where everything had been paid off and where they had a healthy budget surplus would actually be lauding the activities of that former government.