My question is to the Treasurer. How is the Albanese Labor government managing the economy and the budget responsibly in the face of serious global uncertainty, and what are the alternative approaches?

I thank the member for Werriwa for her question and for the great work that she does in her local community. From an economic point of view, the end of the war in the Middle East can't come soon enough. We've seen in the last day or so that the oil price is now, again, $107 per barrel; that's 50 per cent higher since the conflict started. What that means is that the war on the other side of the world is weighing on growth, and it's pushing up inflation right around the world. This is the point that the Reserve Bank's assistant governor, Sarah Hunter, made yesterday when she described the global environment as more inflationary and said the risk to inflation from the Middle East conflict has 'tracked up recently'.

The longer the war drags on, the more concerned markets become about the impacts of inflation. It pushes up expectations for global interest rates, which then pushes up bond yields as well. We saw the European Central Bank raise rates last week, and the market is now pricing in an interest rate hike in every single major advanced economy. Overnight, the US 10-year yield crossed five per cent for the first time since 2023, and that means higher borrowing costs as well.

We're not immune to these challenges. Our 10-year yield is up around 75 basis points since the conflict started, whereas in the US it's up about 100 basis points. That's why, at a time of heightened global economic uncertainty, responsible economic management is more important now than ever before. It's why it's so important that we have lower gross debt to GDP than every major advanced economy. Our gross debt as a share of our economy is much less than half of the US, less than half of Canada and the UK. It's also less than a quarter of gross debt to GDP in Japan. Because of this government's responsible approach to the budget, the bottom line is more than a quarter of a trillion dollars better than what we inherited from those opposite, and gross debt is around $200 billion lower.

Our responsible approach to managing the budget stands in stark contrast to those opposite. Most of the $1 trillion of debt in the budget—in fact, almost two-thirds of it—was racked up by the Liberal Party, when they doubled the debt even before COVID. They now have made more than half a trillion dollars worth of commitments since the election, with no explanation as to how they would pay for them—just over the four-year forward estimates, more than $110 billion in commitments.

That's just a lie.

We know that the war in Iran is the key driver of the uptick in inflation around the world, but by their own—

Order! We're going to get the member for Goldstein—don't look surprised—to withdraw.

To assist the House, I'll withdraw.

Mr Speaker, 'to assist the House' is viewed as a qualified apology, which is done on occasions when you have not ruled that something is unparliamentary. When something is unparliamentary, a withdrawal should simply be made without any qualifiers whatsoever.

We'll do it the right way. It was good enough for the Leader of the Opposition yesterday to follow my lead. It'll be good enough for the member for Goldstein to simply get up and withdraw.

I'll withdraw.

It's the closest he gets to the microphone during question time! By their own logic, their unfunded commitments will push inflation up, deficits up— (Time expired)

My question is to the Treasurer. Treasurer, I have been reading and studying page 259 of your budget. Given the heightened global economic uncertainty, do you accept that the Commonwealth debt has a point beyond which it becomes unsustainable—yes or no? If yes, what gross-debt-to-GDP ratio, or what gross debt level, would trigger that concern with you?

Thank you to the honourable member for his important question. I think right around the world and certainly in Australia, when you see what's happening with bond yields on global debt markets, this issue is attracting a lot of attention. I think it's fair to say around the world it's also attracting its fair share of concern. What I was saying in my earlier answer to my colleague's question, which was along similar lines, is that it's really important right now that Australia's debt position is much, much stronger than our peers'. We have lower gross debt to GDP than any major advanced economy. In fact, it's much lower—less than half—than in the US, the UK and Canada. It's less than a quarter of Japan's. That's really important because, to go to the core of his question, there are other countries where debt is approaching unsustainable levels, but not Australia. Even if you consider that trillion dollars of debt in our budget, the fact is that almost two thirds of it was racked up by the former government.

We've actually made a lot of progress together as a country in the last few years getting that gross debt-to-GDP trajectory down. If you look in the budget papers, there is a graph that shows—if you compare the 2022 pre-election fiscal outlook with the debt position that we're in now, we're in about $200 billion less debt than the trajectory that we inherited. That's really important. But we also acknowledge that the task of responsible economic management, the task of budget repair and doing what we can to get that Liberal debt down where we can, is an ongoing—

On a point of order, I'd like to bring it back to the relevance to my question, which was: what is your acceptable debt-to-GDP ratio, your forecast; and what gross debt level would trigger your concerns?

To the point of order, the issues that the Treasurer is going to are exactly relevant to those words that have just been quoted in the question.

The Treasurer is being directly relevant. I know you'd like a specific number and a figure. But, as other members have indicated before, member for Farrer, I can't compel the Treasurer to do that. I can compel him to be directly relevant, and he has been spot on with his relevance regarding the question he was asked. I appreciate you'd like a different answer, but I can't make him deliver what you'd wish.

Respectfully, to the member for Farrer as well, I've gone to debt to GDP. I've gone to Australian levels. I've gone to other levels around the world. The reason that this is especially topical right now is that, if you look at US Treasury bond yields for 10 years, they breached five per cent again today. That is a source of considerable concern for policymakers, decision-makers, governments and the private sector right around the world. It reflects a number of things.

It reflects the fact that the war in Iran is dragging on longer than anyone would like from an economic point of view. It's reflecting the fact that a lot of other countries—not Australia, but a lot of other countries—are carrying levels of debt that are approaching unsustainable levels. It reflects the fact that interest rate expectations have gone up around the world in every major advanced economy. They now expect a rate rise. It reflects the fact that the private sector, including the hyperscalers in the AI and technology landscape, are competing more substantially to raise capital on these markets. And it reflects all of the uncertainty in our economy—geopolitical uncertainty and economic uncertainty as well. The question that he asked is a really important one. Australia's position is better than our peers'. (Time expired)