Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Senator Wong. I refer the minister to her comments in the Australian on the weekend where she said that the government had a fiscal rule that would 'limit real spending growth to two per cent until you get back to a trend surplus of one per cent of GDP'. I also refer to the final budget outcome for 2011-12, which shows that real spending grew by 4.8 per cent in 2011-12, more than double the two per cent target when the budget was nowhere near a surplus of one per cent of GDP. Isn't it a fact that Labor ran a massive deficit of $43.3 billion, or three per cent of GDP, in 2011-12? If Labor were really committed to a fiscal rule of limiting real spending growth to two per cent until a trend surplus of one per cent of GDP had been achieved, why then did the government break that rule again last financial year?