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

Deficits to fund recurrent expenditure are a drag on future economic growth. Budget repair helps us to strengthen the growth because it helps us to get the fiscal room for important reform of our tax system to drive productivity and competitiveness improvements, and it also helps to make us more resilient in the context of inevitable future economic shocks. I know that the worst finance minister in the history of the Commonwealth does not like to hear this, because we are still dealing with the unsustainable, unaffordable spending growth that the previous finance minister locked Australia into. The reason we are pursuing budget repair—the very important reason on top of the focus on stronger growth—is to ensure that the important benefits and services provided by government, the important social safety net provided by government, remain sustainable in the future. (Time expired)