Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

As the Treasurer said in December last year, dramatically weaker revenues mean that a surplus this year is unlikely. He said that upfront to the Australian people in December. This is not because we are expecting spending to run out of control but because we are not collecting the amount of taxes that we expected to. It is very simple. We continue to be upfront about the impact of the revenue pressures. What we will not do is hire Dodgy Brothers accountants to sign-off on a set of accounts that have an $11 billion hole in them, like those opposite did in the last election campaign.

Just last week, the Treasurer indicated that the revenue shortfall will grow further, possibly by another two—