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

To the Leader of the Opposition: whether or not he likes it, there are these things called facts, and they cannot be wished away and they cannot be ignored. When we come to dealing with the facts, what we see is a further write-down in revenues from what was expected in terms of Treasury estimates—that is, Treasury doing the absolute best it can, but a further write-down in revenues. That is a fact and it needs to be accounted for, obviously, by the government; but it also needs to be accounted for by the opposition if it wants to be taken seriously in any sort of economic debate.

In these circumstances there is a choice—and the choice the government has made is to make sure we maintain a focus on jobs and growth. It would not be appropriate, with a focus on jobs and growth, to seek to offset the revenue write-downs; it would not be appropriate, with a focus on jobs and growth, to offset the operation of the automatic stabilisers in the budget. Consequently, we will not do so. What we will do is continue our proud track record of creating jobs and opportunities for working Australians.

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