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

Of course, the question also went to maximising the return for the Commonwealth from its investments. The point I was about to make was that, in the last year of the Howard government, the federal government was collecting more than $1 billion in net interest payments, on the back of a positive net asset position, whereas, of course, now we have to pay more than $1.2 billion in debt interest to service the debt that Labor left behind. Of course, we would absolutely expect every one of the Commonwealth organisations to invest, to maximise return, and these are important decisions. (Time expired)