Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

The government has been very transparent in the savings that we intend to make out of the foreign aid budget. Given the debt and deficit disaster that we have inherited from the Labor Party, we have no choice but to focus on getting our own affairs in order before we start spending money that we have not got. The Labor Party and the Greens might want us to continue to borrow money to give it away, but we think we have a responsibility to our children and grandchildren to repair the budget, to build a stronger, more prosperous economy, to create opportunity for everyone to get ahead, but we are not going to continue to spend money that we have not got. The spending growth trajectory in foreign aid that former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd locked Australia into in his quest to become the next Secretary-General of the United Nations was completely unsustainable and it was completely unaffordable. Our children and grandchildren would not have to pay the price—