Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

What a tale of woe Labor's elusive search for a budget surplus has been! I think the story of Labor's efforts to repair the budget is a good encapsulation of this government. It tells you everything you need to know about this government. There are really two things that you need to know about this government: a lack of competence and consistent breaches of faith with the Australian people. That is what the budget bottom line represents.

Mr Acting Deputy President, I would ask you to cast your mind back to the very first budget of Treasurer Swan, the 2008-09 budget. Treasurer Swan said—and I am fond of quoting Treasurer Swan's 2008-09 budget speech—'We are budgeting for a surplus of $21.7 billion in 2008-09.' Let me just repeat that for you. Treasurer Swan said in his 2008-09 budget speech:

We are budgeting for a surplus of $21.7 billion in 2008-09, 1.8 per cent of GDP, the largest budget surplus as a share of GDP in nearly a decade.

This honours and exceeds the 1.5 per cent target we said in January, without relying on revenue windfalls.

What Treasurer Swan was basically saying in that budget speech was that Treasurer Costello, with his nine budget surpluses, and the Howard government were basically a pack of easy beats—that their budget surpluses were pathetic; that he was going to go better; that he was going to show us what real fiscal manhood looks like; that he—