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

As I have said to the Senate previously, the Australian economy and the Australian budget are in better shape than they would have been had Labor stayed in government. That is No. 1. No. 2: when we came into government we inherited a weakening economy, rising unemployment and a budget position that was rapidly deteriorating. Remember the 11 short weeks between Labor's last budget and their pre-election economic statement. There was a $33 billion deterioration in the budget bottom line—about $3 billion a week.