Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Given that yesterday this Minister for Finance and Deregulation was not able to confirm that a growing stockpile of royalty credits would attract more than 10 per cent compound interest and that the Treasurer is clearly not across the operation of his complex mining tax either, why should anyone believe that it will raise $2 billion this financial year? Instead of waiting until next year to admit that Labor will deliver yet another budget deficit, why do they not just come clean and now fess up that there will be no Labor budget surplus this year?