Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

As a Geelong supporter, I think people should settle that in a few weeks when Geelong wins the grand final! But back to much more serious business: we have delivered a budget surplus of $22 billion at the same time as we have delivered a Working Families Support Package worth over $50 billion, including $47 billion in tax cuts. Why have we taken this approach? Certainly the Labor government knows—I am not sure that those in the Liberal opposition know—that this is a time of global economic uncertainty as a consequence of the fallout—the financial crisis—from the subprime housing crisis in the United States. I say through you, Mr President, that I do not believe that the Liberal opposition understand the implications of this. So we have determined to deliver a significant surplus—a record surplus—of over $22 billion to provide a buffer against global turmoil, to ensure the Reserve Bank has room to move in lowering interest rates and also to finance critical nation-building investments for the future that were well outlined by our leader, Senator Evans, earlier. A large part of the surplus, which the Liberal opposition is intent on wrecking, will be going into those critical nation-building projects in infrastructure, health and housing. So this is why this Labor government is taking a fiscally conservative approach in the current circumstances.

We gave a commitment to govern in an economically responsible way, and the No. 1 reason we are governing in this way is to put downward pressure on interest rates and inflation. This is the Labor government playing its part to take the pressure off inflation and to ensure that the Reserve Bank has the capacity to reassess monetary policy and to reduce interest rates.