David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer ) Share this | Hansard source

I point out to the member in response to his very serious concerns about the availability of time for questions that at least a minute was wasted by him talking about concerns he might have about other members having legitimate questions that they might want to come into this place and ask. Of course, every member who is elected by their constituency to represent them would have an expectation that their member, regardless of political persuasion, will take an interest in the budget process and certainly the consideration-in-detail stage of the appropriations bills. As to whether others will ask questions, that is a matter for them as they seek to represent their community. I know those on the other side sometimes put together a bit of a roster, where they send people into bat. It seems as though we have the member for Casey and the member for Higgins today. I welcome that because, having seen their contributions in the past, I am not all that concerned about what might be coming our way.

I am delighted that the member for Casey takes such a keen interest in my newsletters. It has been said to me on occasions that people do not read those newsletters. I am refreshed to know that the member for Casey has travelled several hundred kilometres in fact in order to make sure that he does not miss the important information that is disseminated in my latest correspondence as I send that out to the community. The member for Casey will know, of course, that the revenue situation that the government faces is an incredibly challenging one.

Whilst those opposite seek to minimise the significance of what this country is facing in terms of revenue write-downs, the fact remains that we have seen substantial write-downs in revenues. Those opposite will say, 'No; revenue is higher today than it was last year,' and that is true. But, for an economy growing at the speed that our economy is growing and with all of the other indicators being where they are, you would be expecting a greater share of revenue to be collected. That is the reality that we confront. Of course, we would like to have been able to return the budget to surplus faster than we are going to be able to do.

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