Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Carr keeps forgetting that we inherited the situation where the federal government was running annual deficits of $10 billion—that was in 1996 dollar terms—and paying $8.5 billion in interest. We had to take very dramatic steps to cure that situation, to correct the budget deficits and to get the budget back into balance and into surplus. Through all of that and despite having to introduce significant measures to bring the budget back under control, we have been able to maintain the investment in education, which means by definition that, if the economy is growing at 2½ to 3 per cent in real terms and you are maintaining the level of spending to GDP that you have on education, you are increasing investment in education by that 2½ to 3 per cent in real terms every year. That is a magnificent achievement, only made possible because we have eliminated Labor’s debt and got rid of their deficits.