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

The Treasury officials that you have somewhat criticised are the same Treasury officials that advised you, the Liberal-National Party, in government. These are the same Treasury officials that I have spent many years asking questions of. Going specifically to the change in economic circumstances, economic circumstances and forecasts have changed dramatically—and I stress dramatically—over the last year, given the financial and economic crisis. I can recall, going back over a number of estimates and a number of years, questioning Treasury about, for example, the mining boom and the demand from China and questioning the veracity of the forecasts. Treasury officials had a two-step down, in terms of the value of mining and demand and the revenue impact on the budget, and they kept moving that out because the mining boom went on longer than anyone reasonably expected and they could not identify when it was going to end. They could not identify it was going to come to an end under your government and under our government when we were first elected. But the mining boom has ended, because we have now got a significant change in economic circumstances.

Sure, I criticised Treasury from time to time when I was in opposition. I have criticised them, and I had some strong debates—I would not describe them as personal—and some good discussions when I was in opposition. I did most of the economics and finance estimates committees and had a lot of exchanges with Treasury over the years. They are not infallible, and I do not think they suggest they are infallible. But I do know that, by and large, they all try to get it right. Economics is not a precise science, but I do know that we have got very good officials—