Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline for the House the importance of sound economic and fiscal management in the face of global economic uncertainty? What would be the cost of not having sound and transparent fiscal policy?

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

I thank the member for Petrie for that question because there is ongoing instability in the global economy and it is likely that these headwinds will be with us for some time yet. Despite these circumstances, the fundamentals in the Australian economy are strong, and they are almost unique among all developed economies. Unlike other developed economies, we avoided recession. We have grown our economy by over five per cent from its precrisis level, whilst countries like the United States are still struggling to get back to where they were before the global financial crisis. We have also created something like three-quarters of a million jobs, whereas elsewhere in the global economy you have seen something like 30 million jobs lost. We have an unprecedented investment pipeline, something like $430 billion in resources alone. And we are bringing our budget back to surplus in 2012-13. These are all strengths which should be valued. Of course, they will help us ride out the instability that we see in the global economy.

It makes it more important that we build on these strengths during these times of global uncertainty. It makes it more important that we have fiscally responsible policies in place. It also makes it more important that all election commitments are fully costed. That is why it is so important that we have an independent Parliamentary Budget Office. I thank those on this side of the House and those on the other side of the House that recommended an independent Parliamentary Budget Office. Great work was done by both sides of the House to put in place a process in which all members of the House could have confidence. There was bipartisan support for the Parliamentary Budget Office, so that in the future there could be no excuses for parties not to have their election commitments fully costed. There would be no excuse in the future for things like the $11 billion black hole, the costings con job that was foisted on the Australian people during the last election campaign.

The Parliamentary Budget Office is critical for transparency around policy costings. It is all about making sure that these are open and public, not secret as the Liberal Party is now trying to achieve, because it has rejected the model of the Parliamentary Budget Office. Why has it rejected this model that its members in this House recommended? The fact is it has a $70 billion crater in its budget estimates. That is why there has been this backflip and it is now rejecting a Parliamentary Budget Office. A Parliamentary Budget Office is important to strengthen our fiscal framework. It is important to budget responsibility and to facing the future. When it comes to the Parliamentary Budget Office, 'No,' is not the answer.