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

I thank the member for that very important question. We know that the recent natural disasters have had a significant impact on our economy, but these events have not knocked our economy off its path. Our fundamentals are strong because we have low and falling unemployment, we have record terms of trade and we have an unprecedented investment pipeline. We saw that with the capex data last week and we saw it with the ABARES data as well. We have a record investment boom which is going to stretch the capacity of our economy. That is why we have put in place measures to support our workforce for the future and that is why we put in place some tough savings measures to bring our budget back to surplus in 2012-13. That is also why we put in place something like $22 billion worth of savings over the forward estimates.

It was very important to do all of that, but it stands in stark contrast to the approach of those opposite, who have no plan to bring the budget back to surplus and no plan for jobs. We have seen today this absolutely extraordinary effort by the shadow Treasurer, who started to blame all of his colleagues for the shocker that he had at the Press Club.

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