Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline to the House the importance of returning the budget to surplus and investing in jobs? How has this approach been received, and what is the government's response?

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

We in this House can all have confidence that the fundamentals in our economy are strong and that our future prospects are bright. We have low unemployment, we have record terms of trade and we have an unprecedented pipeline of investment. In particular, as ABARES shows, $430 billion is in the pipeline for resources.

This investment boom will over time stretch our economic capacity, and that is why it is critical to bring our budget back to surplus in 2012-13. That is why we are delivering such a significant fiscal consol­idation. This has been noted in particular by the Reserve Bank in recent times. It is also why we are concerned to build a bigger and better workforce so that all Australians can participate in the opportunities which will flow from the mining boom. This is why the budget was welcomed not just by the Reserve Bank but also by private-sector economists, business groups, unions and community groups. This is why it was so important that the budget pass the House last Thursday—to deliver the economic investments which are so important for our future prosperity and to put in place the savings we needed in that budget to bring our budget back to surplus. So what passed in this House were also key savings measures. These were part of something like 150 bills which have passed through the House of Representatives during the period of this Gillard government. It is a very substantial achievement which goes to the core of securing our future prosperity. We are concerned with continuing to deliver that, but there are some risks to this outlook from the approach of those opposite, particularly the shadow Treasurer. They are still insisting on holding up something like $6 billion worth of critical savings, and that is on top of the $7 billion in budget savings that they have opposed in this House.

We had some revelations about a possible opposition economic policy last week. They came out and said that they were going to give a new round of tax cuts. Of course, we do not know how those tax cuts are going to be delivered because we have not seen the savings to deliver them. We have no idea where they are going to come from. In the same breath, the shadow Treasurer said seriously that he was going to bring down interest rates as well. I do not know how he gets to a position of having a lower surplus, opposing savings in this House and bringing down interest rates. I think the stupidity of this was evident in a press conference the shadow Treasurer gave just before question time. His main point was that we must take pressure off interest rates by spending less. How do you spend less and give substantial tax cuts without indicating where the savings are going to come from?

Of course, when he was challenged by the journalist he walked off and had a hissy fit. Just before question time he was questioned about how all of this was going to be done and he could not answer the question and walked away in a huff. Finally, he was asked by one of the journalists about his cardboard cut-out antics here a few weeks ago and he just stormed off. None of that is a substitute for a fully funded and fully assessed economic policy. It just proves how unfit for high office all of those opposite are.