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

I am standing next to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, so I shall be very careful about what I say, but I am sure that the senator is not suggesting that every time there is an election in any economy in Europe the government should revise its economic forecasts. And I am sure, as a former officer of the Treasury and as a former senior adviser, he would know that governments update their forecasts in the usual way, and the next forecast, absent the government making a decision to make any other economic statement, would be in the mid-year outlook. But I again say our forecasts are broadly in line with those of the RBA, market economists and the IMF, with this note—that we are in fact more conservative about the position in Europe.