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

Last night the Treasurer presented the government's budget that will bring the budget back to black by 2012-13, as we have committed to. It is a surplus achieved by taking some $22 billion worth of savings and a surplus achieved despite the significant downgrade in revenues from the legacy effects of the global financial crisis as well as the effects of a high dollar and the floods and disasters on the Australian economy—things that the opposition seem to like to avoid.

We have seen revenue write-downs in 2010-11 and 2011-2012 of some $16.3 billion but, despite this, this government has taken the decisions to ensure the budget comes back to surplus and that the budget prepares Australians for the increase in employment which we will see continue. Remember, this is a government under which there have been some 750,000 jobs created and we anticipate another 500,000 jobs in the year ahead. It is a budget focused on ensuring we reprioritise expenditure, make spending cuts and apply our investment to those things which are good for the economy, good for Australian workers and good for Australian families.

We know that some of the decisions in this budget will not be popular, but they are necessary because we must build surpluses. We must not compound the price pressures we know will increase as a result of the gathering pace of the mining boom. That is why the government have made the disciplined decisions necessary to achieve that surplus. We look forward to the opposition finding some semblance of economic responsibility in the number of hours between now and the budget reply. (Time expired)