Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Denison for his question and believe I have good news for him, which is yes, I do commit to keeping the promises at a local level that Labor and Labor candidates made at the last election, including the promises we made in the electorate of Denison. The reason I am able to say that with confidence is that during the election campaign we had a proper process of costing, which means we understood the costs of the promises that we were making. We made proper provision for them and we made proper provision for them in a context where the budget is coming back to surplus in 2012-13 and where across the election campaign our promises were matched by offsetting savings. Consequently I can say yes to the member for Denison with a degree of confidence. Of course, that is in sharp contrast to the circumstance that the opposition found itself in, with an $11 billion black hole—

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