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

I thank Senator Leyonhjelm for that question. Senator Leyonhjelm refers to the last surplus in 2007. Senator Leyonhjelm is of course right that the previous Labor government, back in 2007, inherited a very strong budget position with a strong surplus, no government net debt and a positive net asset position. In contrast, when we came into government in 2013, after six years of Labor, we inherited about $200 billion in accumulated deficits, a further $123 billion in projected deficits—debt and deficits as far as the eye could see—and indeed a rapidly deteriorating budget position. A key driver of that rapidly deteriorating budget position was the excessive spending growth locked in and legislated by the previous Labor government, firstly during the GFC and then in the shadow of an election that they were about to lose.

We have been working hard to turn that situation around. The budget is now in a better position than it would have been if Labor had stayed in government and persisted with their 2013 policy settings. The underlying cash balance is more than $50 billion better than it would be right now under Labor given the unfunded spending promises that Mr Shorten and his shadow ministers have made since the last election. We have faced some additional challenges, global economic headwinds, which is well understood, but also headwinds in the Senate. Indeed, the budget would be in an even better position if the Senate had passed all of our budget repair measures as proposed.

In relation to the question on when the budget is projected to return to surplus: as Senator Leyonhjelm would be well aware from our budget update, based on currently available information, our budget is projected to get back to surplus by 2020-21.