Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

No. I know that those opposite choose to ignore what is happening around the world. As my colleague Senator Sherry just indicated, yes, there are again serious economic issues facing the international community. There are serious issues that this Australian government, as opposed to the previous Australian government, is conscious of and is actually spending its time trying to address.

We need a strong surplus to provide a buffer against this global turmoil, to ensure that the Reserve Bank has room to move on interest rates and to finance critical nation-building investment for the future. That is why we delivered a strong $22 billion budget surplus, whereas those opposite are conducting an irresponsible raid on the budget surplus. This is the height of economic irresponsibility. It is vandalising the budget at a time of heightened global uncertainty. Those opposite—