Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I'll give you three numbers. Under this government, we've banked about 70 per cent of upward revision to revenue. Under those opposite it was about 40 per cent, and under Howard and Costello it was 30 per cent. What that tells the House and the shadow Treasurer is that we banked most of the upward revisions to revenue and they spent most of it. That's why their fiscal rules in office weren't worth the paper that they were written on. They failed every single test that they set for themselves. They said they'd deliver surpluses, and they went none for nine—complete doughnuts when it comes to surpluses. We delivered surpluses in our first two years in office.

What matters here is the fiscal rules and also outcomes. We've been able to make some good progress cleaning up the mess that was left to us by those opposite; they left us a trillion dollars of Liberal debt and huge deficits as far as the eye could see. We turned two of those Liberal deficits into two substantial Labor surpluses. We will stack up our record on responsible economic management against those opposite's any day, and I hope that these questions continue. When I was told that the member for Fairfax gave a speech about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I confess that the word 'Wonka' was almost the word that came to mind!

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