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

What the Deputy Prime Minister was referring to this morning was the debt cap changes that the government is bringing to the parliament. This is to deal with volatility during the course of the financial year. Debt will remain below the $250 billion current cap at the end of financial years, but there is volatility during the year. What the Leader of the Opposition, who is obviously struggling to understand the budget—and there is no mystery about that given his lack of interest in economics, as the former Treasurer, Peter Costello, was known to remark on more than one occasion—has obviously not noticed in the budget is that it brings the budget to surplus in 2012-13 exactly as promised. It brings the budget to surplus because that is the right thing for our economy now. It is the clearest sign of a strong economy. It is giving us a buffer for the future. With the government doing the right thing—bringing the budget to surplus—we are giving the Reserve Bank the room to move, should it choose to do so, in reducing interest rates. We know from last week just how important interest rate reductions are to working families.

We have learnt something else today about the nature of the Leader of the Opposition and his approach to budgeting: he does not trust Australian families. That is the issue before the parliament today. We believe hardworking Australian families can be trusted—

Government members: Shame! Shame!

See this speech in context