Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The argument being put by those opposite is: ‘It just doesn’t matter; chop the budget surplus by $1 billion, $6 billion—it doesn’t matter.’ Is that the sort of economic responsibility that this country needs and the Australian public is calling for? As I said earlier in question time, we have substantial global uncertainty, we have rising oil prices, so the budget was framed in that context. A number of hard decisions have had to be made, and they have been shared across many areas of the public sector. My own department has had to make savings. Treasury, Finance and all of the ancillary organisations have had to accept the efficiency dividend. So the budget was framed in a way that would deliver downward pressure on interest rates—and I am sure Senator Xenophon, and occasionally those opposite, would agree that the challenge in the economy at the moment is to reduce pressure on interest rates. That means reducing pressure on inflation so that we are able to assist in that fight—not like those opposite, whose main interest is cheap political points.