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

I was asked a question about the contingency reserve and there appears to be an ongoing problem in the opposition in that they do not understand how the contingency reserve operates. I would not suggest for understanding that they go and read every aspect of various newspaper articles. Senator Cormann will recall during the estimates hearing we did explain at length to him the way in which the CR operates. We also explained at length why the costings in what is known as the conservative bias allowance that the opposition made were incorrect and how they contributed to the $11 billion black hole. The contingency reserve is not a general policy reserve. It is not a rainy day fund. It is true that no provision was made in the CR as at the 2011-12 budget for the carbon price because details of the proposal and financial implications of such were yet to be determined by government. As we said in the budget papers, as we have said since, we will update the figures associated with the carbon price package in the usual way after the policy has been finalised.