Zhi Soon (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. How has the Albanese Labor government approached the task of budget repair? How does this compare with other approaches?

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

Thanks to the member for Banks for the big and thoughtful contribution he's already making in his first term in this place. As I was saying, the midyear update that we handed down in December detailed $20 billion in savings, and it banked every cent of upward revisions to revenue. What made it the most responsible midyear update on record was that it was the only one ever to have a better bottom line every year of the forward estimates, less debt every year of the forward estimates and net policy decisions that improve the budget bottom line. This is entirely consistent with the responsible approach that we've taken since we came to office. We've delivered that biggest nominal turnaround in the budget ever—a $233 billion improvement. We've found that $114 billion in savings. We've got the gross debt down this year to $176 billion lower than what it was when we came to office, and that means we're avoiding that $60 billion in interest costs.

But the progress is most obvious when you compare our record on the budget to that of our predecessors. They promised a surplus in their first year and every year—they never delivered one. We've already delivered two surpluses, and we got their deficits down. They had real spending growth averaging 4.1 per cent; we've got it down to 1.7 per cent. They had spending at almost a third of the economy; we've got it down closer to a quarter. They spent the majority of upward revisions to revenue; we have saved most of them. They had debt peaking at 45 per cent of our economy; we've got that down to 37 per cent. They doubled the debt even before the pandemic, and we've been able to get some of it down. They went to the election promising to jack up income taxes on every taxpayer; we'll cut taxes this year and next year as well.

I know that the shadow Treasurer has been talking about fiscal rules. The Liberal Party's fiscal rules weren't worth the paper that they were printed on. They promised surpluses; they went none from nine. They didn't limit their spending or bank revenue upgrades like we have. They failed every test that they set for themselves. The highest spending government was Scott Morrison's government. The highest taxing government was John Howard's government. They took to the election a policy for higher income taxes, higher electricity bills, bigger deficits and more debt, and that's why nobody takes them seriously on the economy anymore. They might change their leader, but they can't change their record. We will not be taking lectures from them. We have delivered the surpluses, the spending restraint and the savings that our predecessors could not. We know that there's more work to do on the budget, and that's our focus as they focus on who sits where over there.