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

Our response to a global recession immediately is important, and that has been demonstrated by the OECD report today. But the government, when it brought down its last budget, put in place a medium-term fiscal strategy because that is important in order to return the budget to surplus as quickly as we possibly can when the global economy recovers. And we have got our fiscal rules. We are going to put them into place. We will have our two per cent expenditure cap in place when growth moves above trend. If those opposite want to pretend that somehow Australia is completely immune from global growth, let them do so. But the one thing I can say is that Australia is in one of the best positions of any of the advanced economies to handle these very challenging circumstances, particularly when it comes to employment. And we will do everything within our power to support employment, to support business and to bring the budget back into surplus as quickly as we possibly can given the global conditions.

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