Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Robertson for the question and recognise that in Labor's last budget they promised an $18 billion deficit. In fact—they were so close—it turned out to be a $48.5 billion deficit. They were only $30 billion out. They were close this time. They missed it by 'this' much. It was quite a considerable effort given that there were no shock events in the last financial year—certainly there was no shock event at the last election. The fact of the matter is that that left Labor having delivered six consecutive budget deficits, totalling $230 billion. No wonder Mr Swan was made Treasurer of the Year by the rest of the world, because no-one else could meet that benchmark. No-one could get there. In the last year alone the deficit left by Labor was the equivalent of $2,000 for every man woman and child. It confirms that last year the Australian government had to pay $1.2 billion in interest every month just on the debt that Labor left. Seventy per cent of that is heading overseas because the Labor Party when in government had to borrow from people overseas. The net result is that about $800 million was going overseas. Without corrective action what we inherited from Labor would in 10 years time be $667 billion of government debt—

Mr Conroy interjecting—

Mr Dutton interjecting—

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