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

You do not have to accept every question that you have been given by your tactics leader. If you live with the facts, we inherited $123 billion in projected deficits. We brought that down to $82 billion in projected deficits. Yes, there is further to go, but we are making progress and heading in the right direction.

The Labor Party, over the last year, have opposed more than $30 billion in savings, including more than $5 billion in savings that they themselves initiated in their last budget. Don't you come in here and cry crocodile tears. If you were still in government the situation would actually be worse. In fact, if we had listened to all of your suggestions over the last year the situation would be worse. The truth is that we are now in a stronger, more resilient position as a result of the difficult but necessary decisions that we made. Yes, we have made some adjustments along the way, but we are now heading in the right direction. I say it again—the economy is strengthening, more jobs are being created, the budget is going back into surplus. (Time expired)