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

Last week the Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister also committed to releasing the 2012-13 preliminary underlying cash balance outcome when the secretaries of both Treasury and Finance inform the government that they have a reliable figure. We have made clear in that announcement that we are willing to make sure that the cash balance is released at the time we have a reliable figure. The officials have indicated that a reliable estimate could be made well before the election, and we commit to releasing it. This really flies in the face of Senator Cormann's scare campaign where he suggests the government does not want this information released. Well, on this side, we are saying we commit to releasing it; and, at that point, those opposite will run out of excuses. They will run out of excuses. They will no longer be able to say, 'Dodge and weave and duck and say, "We can't release our costings, we can't tell you our plans for cuts, because we don't know what the numbers are".' We will make sure you have them, and you will have no more excuses. (Time expired)