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

I go back to where I started, Senator Canavan. We need to repair the budget to protect the opportunity and to protect living standards for our children and grandchildren into the future. Right now, Australia is living beyond its means. Labor wants to lock us into a trajectory where we continue to live beyond our means at a time when the record terms of trade and the record prices we were able to get for our commodities are gone for the time being. We need to adjust our spending in order to ensure that it fits within the revenue that we can responsibly collect. I have made the point that whoever was in government now would be confronted with a circumstance where our export income from iron ore exports, in particular, was well below where it was in the past. Of course, we need to take that into account.

I want to congratulate Senators Day and Leyonhjelm for the constructive approach which they took last Thursday in coming forward with alternative proposals. (Time expired)