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

The spending growth trajectory that Labor left behind was completely unsustainable. The previous finance minister, Senator Wong, who presided over a $107 billion deterioration in the budget bottom line in the three short years that she was the finance minister, kept lecturing us how Labor was keeping real growth in government spending below two per cent. Well, the truth is it was 3½ per cent over the forward estimates. And it actually gets worse. In the period beyond the forward estimates, the previous Labor government recklessly and irresponsibly locked in spending growth of about six per cent per annum. Labor put us on a trajectory of taking government spending as a share of GDP to 26.5 per cent by 23-24, when revenue on average over the last 20 years has been 22.4 per cent. Labor wanted us to keep borrowing, keep adding to the debt and keep adding burdens to future generations for them to pay off. (Time expired)