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

EFIC, Australia Post and other organisations in the same way that the Howard government accounted for them. That is what is going on. But what we have seen with this question, like we saw with the previous question, is the coalition's fiscal fearmongering. They want to go out there and grossly exaggerate the amount of debt we have got in our economy, which is modest. We have got net debt at 11.1 per cent of GDP. That is like someone with $100,000 worth of income owing less than $12,000. It is a modest level of debt and we have it because we are supporting jobs and our economy when it is needed. But their position is really clear because, when they ask these questions, what they are really saying is: 'You shouldn't have done that. What you should have done is take an axe to the budget and an axe to jobs.' Just because the global economy takes an axe to our revenues, we are not going to take an axe to jobs like you would. We are not going to do that.

We have a modest level of debt. It is a buffer because our revenues have been written down to support our economy, and everyone on this side of the House is proud of that, proud that we are supporting our economy, proud that we are supporting jobs, proud that this government has got the guts to get behind our economy and proud that we do not go down the austerity route that those opposite want to go down with all of their fiscal fearmongering and all of the consequences that come with it. When they are going on about debt, what they are really on about is their subterranean agenda to take an axe to the social safety net. That is what they are on about, and that is what his speech to the IPA was all about: do some fiscal fearmongering to set the scene to slash health and education, to cut to the bone. There is a very clear choice following this budget, and Australians will know what it is.

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