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

The budget is a range of choices around the future and for the future, savings decisions—some of which have already been criticised by those opposite—and a pathway to surplus. I remind those opposite, in the face of their hysteria, that the AAA credit rating on the back of the budget has been reaffirmed by all three credit rating agencies, despite your hyperbole and your saying that the sky is going to fall.

But what I will say is this: we have laid out our plan for the Australian people; where is yours? They come in here and they say, 'We'd fix everything, we'd have bigger surpluses.' Well, what would you cut? What would you cut? Would you cut pensions? Would you cut Medicare? Would you cut the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme? Will you walk away from DisabilityCare? Will you hack into our universities and our research? Tell people what you would cut. Universities have grown 75 per cent under us. There has been a 75 per cent increase under Labor governments. (Time expired)