Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

It is very difficult to work out what the opposition’s view of the world is. Apparently a five per cent real growth budget last year was not inflationary and did not matter, but now it is suggesting that something of the same dimension, which it incorrectly suggests is going to occur next year, would be a problem. Perhaps it would be good for all concerned if the member for Wentworth, the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Dickson got together and actually confronted the question of what their macroeconomic management position is—the position that they adopt with respect to the size of the surplus, what the budget projections should be, and what position the opposition should be taking with respect to macroeconomic management and the fiscal settings—instead of contradictory sniping, taking one position today and the opposite position tomorrow. It would do everybody in this House and public debate in this nation a great service if the Liberal Party, which for so long has prided itself on being supposedly the great economic manager of this country, would actually take a position on the question of economic management.

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