Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

First, we have identified $22 billion worth of savings in this budget. Second, the net save/spend position in this budget is a net save in excess of $5 billion. And I should say that, in terms of restraint on expenditure, the average real growth in expenditure in the years of this budget is about one per cent per year. Under Peter Costello, in his last five budgets it was around three per cent a year—I am talking about real growth. The last time a government showed this sort of expenditure restraint was in the 1980s. This is a budget that brings the budget back to surplus and puts more Australians into jobs, trains more Australians and increases participation. If Senator Cormann wants to talk about performance, why don't we talk about Mr Hockey's performance last night and this morning? (Time expired)