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

I thank the member for La Trobe for that very important question, because bringing the budget back to surplus in 2012-13 is critical. You cannot actually return a budget to surplus unless you put in place savings measures, which of course is what the government did in our last budget. In this year's budget we have restricted real spending growth to one per cent a year. That stands in very stark contrast to 3.7 per cent per year in the last five years of the coalition government. We have put in place savings measures totalling $22 billion. These savings are very important because they will fund vital initiatives such as our new initiatives in mental health but also more broadly in education and hospitals. And they deliver a net benefit to the budget bottom line of $5 billion.

Mr Chester interjecting—

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