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

As the 2008-09 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook showed, the impact of the global financial crisis on the budget has been very, very significant. The main impact has been on revenue, which has been revised downwards by some $40 billion over the years 2008-09 to 2001-12. In addition, the government has put in place an economic stimulus package—the Economic Security Strategy—of some $10.4 billion. But I just want to go back briefly to the budget of 2008-09, which was delivered in May. The intention of the government and the commitment of the government was to address inflation and some longer term challenges—a significant slowing in real expenditure growth and reprioritisation of spending to invest in Australia’s future—and, in particular, to deliver a strong budget surplus as a buffer for the future, putting the budget in a good position to help Australia weather the financial turmoil.