Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Well, we on this side of the House will stand up for the RBA governor, we'll stand up for the independence of the Reserve Bank board and we'll also stand up for Australia's national interest. Those opposite continue to try to talk Australia down. When you look at the comments before of the OECD, I accept that the OECD as well—with the secretary-general there, a fellow called Mathias Cormann, who was backed by this side for that job when we were in opposition and backed by this side, as the government, to be reappointed to be the Secretary-General of the OECD. His statements through the OECD I read into Hansard before. There are the RBA governor's comments. The IMF had this to say in November last year:

Australia is managing a soft landing amid global uncertainty …

…   …   …

The Commonwealth's fiscal strategy has been effective over the post-pandemic period …

That's what the IMF said. And since then we've provided something that would be unfamiliar to those opposite: we provided MYEFO with an additional $20 billion of savings. Now those opposite need to come clean about what it is that they think should be cut, because they didn't do anything when they were in government, and we have found $114 billion of savings.

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