Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I'll take the interjection from Senator Wong, because it is absolutely taxpayers' money. We, on this side, have always recognised that it is taxpayer's money and that it needs to be handled carefully. It is why we made sure that we made steps through our early years in government to reduce the rate of growth in government spending and to tackle the structural deficits that had been left by the Labor Party, and by being careful with taxpayers' money, we created the circumstances where the economy absolutely had the resilience to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. We created the set of circumstances where we could invest record sums in supporting Australians through these unprecedented times and, in doing so, still maintain Australia's AAA credit rating, maintain an economic response that, along with the health response, is very much the envy of the world. That is because of careful, consistent economic management over a long period of time that invests in priorities for Australia. (Time expired)