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

I make the point that the drivers behind what is occurring with revenue—as outlined by the Treasurer and others in the Treasury and in the budget papers—are in part structural and in part cyclical. As the senator would know, being a senator from Western Australia, we are in a very strong investment phase in the resources industry, a very capital intensive industry investing very heavily at the moment. By dint of that, for a given amount of economic activity, you will not see the same level of revenue that you would if that economic activity was focused on high levels of production. So the budget papers go through a very detailed discussion of what is occurring in relation to revenue. I say again that this government has demonstrated its determination to return the budget to surplus by making savings to protect the bottom line, something that as yet Senator Cormann has never been able to achieve with his colleagues.