Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Treasurer. I refer him to the Prime Minister’s commitment to a $76 billion infrastructure program, of which $41 billion was to be funded through a Building Australia Fund, the Education Investment Fund and a health and hospital fund. As the Treasurer has so far only allocated $26.3 billion to these three funds, is it still the government’s intention to meet the $14.7 billion shortfall from this year’s surplus?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I certainly thank the member for his question about our plans for nation building and for mentioning our investment funds, which are so important to nation building and so important at a time such as we find ourselves in at the moment. The Prime Minister has made it very clear that we will do everything we possibly can to accelerate expenditure, particularly from the Building Australia Fund. That is going to be very important to work in tandem with our Economic Security Strategy and also to work in tandem with the easing of monetary policy that has come from the Reserve Bank. So all of those things, working together, will strengthen our economy in the face of circumstances that are external to this country and which are going to slow our growth over time. We will use every lever of policy—fiscal stimulus, monetary policy and our nation building agenda—to strengthen our economy. The member asked me about the nation-building funds. He is correct to identify that there is $26 billion available. Future moneys will come out of future surpluses.