Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Hume for the question. I can confirm that every dollar of savings—$77 billion since we came to government—is $77 billion more than the opposition ever saved. Certainly their last budget had zero savings. So it's $77 billion more than you ever put forward.

In terms of fiscal responsibility, we have shown spending restraint. Real spending growth is in the order of 1.4 per cent, which is half of what it was under the former government. We've got gross debt hundreds of billions of dollars below what was forecast when we came to government. We're paying less on our interest bill because of that. We have reduced the deficits that we inherited and we have delivered and are on track to deliver two surpluses. If it's all so easy, why wasn't it possible for those opposite to ever do that—why wasn't it—when we saw deficits and debt increasing even before the pandemic hit?