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

That is right—we are. We have responsibilities to fulfil to the Australian people. The irresponsible actions of the opposition in the Senate will plunder that surplus, will limit the capacity of the government to deal with inflationary pressures and will limit the capacity of the Reserve Bank. That will be on the heads of all of those opposite if they continue with this sort of irresponsible behaviour. But it gets worse than that. They will not put up their hands and accept responsibility for inflation being at a 16-year high. They will not put up their hands and accept any responsibility for the capacity constraints in the Australian economy, which are feeding through into inflation. They now want to deny that there are international and global factors which are slowing the Australian economy and which are also putting upward pressure on rates domestically. They simply want to deny that.

The member for Higgins said last week that, if he were in office now, the international financial crisis would not have happened. He said that, if he were in office now, there would not be a crisis in our stock markets. That is how ridiculous the opposition have become—no credibility and no consistency. On this side of the House we will do the responsible thing, and the responsible thing was done on 13 May in our budget—producing a sizeable surplus, putting in place spending and planning for the long term. Their short-term politics are playing havoc with the national interest. They should get on our side in the Senate and support our surplus.

See this speech in context