George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Lambie. Senator Lambie, as I said in my answer to your primary question, we have had to find economies in almost every area of policy. We have found economies in the foreign aid budget, by the way, and we have found economies on the topic that you raise, in our proposal for Defence Force remuneration. The reason we have to find economies across all areas of policy is that when we came into government this country was over its head in debt inherited from the Labor government. Senator Lambie, let me remind you that when the Howard government went out of office there was no public debt in Australia—none. When the Labor government went out of office six years later, our public debt was approaching $667 billion. As I say, we do this not because we— (Time expired)