Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

What I can confirm is that Australia has one of the lowest net debts in the developed world, peaking at just 8.9 per cent of GDP in 2011-12, less than one-tenth of the average net debt of the major advanced economies, which is around 93 per cent of GDP in 2016. We are at 8.9 per cent and the major advanced economies a number of years down the track will have a net debt at 93 per cent of GDP—8.9 per cent of GDP, Australia at our peak; 93 per cent of GDP for the major advanced economies. These are the facts that fly in the face of the appalling scare campaign and the trashing of the Australian economy that those opposite want to engage in, the talking down of the economy that no-one will thank them for. The reality is that we have one of the lowest net debt positions of any of the major advanced economies in the world. That is the reality.

The other thing that I can confirm is that those opposite have $70 billion of savings that they have to make. You do not have to rely on me to confirm that. You can rely on my counterpart, Mr Robb, who on national television has made very clear that $70 billion is not a furphy. If those opposite want to talk about debt, they had better tell Australians either which services they are going to cut or how much debt they are going to increase. The reality is that you cannot have it both ways. You cannot keep promising spending while saying no to revenue measures, and that is what the opposition is doing and that is why their numbers are in the position they are. (Time expired)