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

What I can confirm is that gross debt will be lower than it would have been under Labor. That is what I can confirm. But don't take my word for it; look at your pre-election costings. Labor went to the last election fessing up to $16.5 billion in bigger deficits, and do you know what? That came after $100 billion in additional taxes.

Senator Wong interjecting—

I take the interjection here from Senator Wong. She has had a lot to say about the level of tax. Well, this government maintains a 23.9 per cent tax-as-a-share-of-GDP cap. Guess who got rid of it in their pre-election costings. Guess who got rid of the tax-as-a-share-of-GDP cap. It was the Labor Party. The Labor Party went to the last election with a commitment to higher taxes, breaking through the 23.9 per cent tax-as-a-share-of-GDP barrier, and was still delivering bigger deficits and delivering bigger and higher debt numbers. So we do not take any lessons from the Labor Party when it comes to good fiscal management. The people across Australia understand that the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments left the budget in a mess and that it came down to the coalition government to again clean up that Labor mess—and we are doing precisely that.