Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Does the Treasurer agree with the Prime Minister’s statement yesterday that the government’s inflation forecast for next year is 3.75 per cent?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. The problem we have here is that the opposition do not think that there is an inflation problem in this country at all. They have delivered inflation at 16-year highs on the back of capacity constraints that they were warned about by the Reserve Bank over years and which they ignored. There is 16-year-high inflation because of their reckless spending. It has fallen to this government to put up its hand to identify the problem and to tackle the problem. What is happening? In the Senate they are trying to sabotage the surplus. Their delay will knock $284 million off that surplus, and that can only do one thing—put upward pressure on interest rates and upward pressure on inflation. They are completely and utterly irresponsible.