Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson for her question. I acknowledge that she represents decent, aspirational people who know what it is like to put aside money today for tomorrow. She represents decent, aspirational people who know what it is like to make sacrifices for their children and for their grandchildren's future.

As the member for Robertson knows and as I suspect most of her constituents would understand, this is a budget that is tough but fair. It is a budget that asks for sacrifices from everyone to secure the long-term future of our country, because we simply could not go on as we were when members opposite were in charge. We simply could not go on paying the mortgage on the credit card, because that is exactly what happened when the Labor Party was in government.

The sad and tragic truth is that when the Labor Party were in charge they brought down six budgets, and those budgets gave us the six biggest deficits in our history. Sure, they forecast surpluses. They promised surpluses, but what they gave us were the six biggest deficits in our history. They did not just give us six deficits; they gave us a further four deficits in prospect. They gave us deficits and debt stretching out as far as the eye can see—$123 billion worth of prospective deficits and $667 billion worth of projected debt. Not only did they give us that; they gave us a double-dip deficit, because in 2017-18 the deficit went up again to $30 billion.

We did not create this problem, but we will take responsibility for fixing it. We bring the budget close to surplus in 2017-18. We get the budget back under control, which is exactly what we promised we would do before the election. We are not just restraining spending; we are building for the future with the world's biggest medical research fund and with the Commonwealth's biggest ever infrastructure spend. In 1996 a coalition government brought in a budget that was tough but fair and set our country up for a decade of prosperity—and last night's budget is in exactly that tradition.

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