James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The government agrees with both the current and former Reserve Bank of Australia governors on the important point that we need to be very disciplined about borrowing for recurrent expenditure. It is vital that we first reduce our current deficit and borrowing for day-to-day government spending. This would give Australia flexibility to consider ways we could fund productive infrastructure beyond the record $50 billion in national infrastructure the government is already investing in improving our productive capacity. We note that even good debt has to be paid back. The government does, however, welcome the Greens' commitment to balancing the budget, although we will not be supporting this motion.