Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, on point of order on relevance: the question was for the minister to comment on the contradictory statements between the deputy leader in the House and the deputy leader in the Senate. The Deputy Prime Minister said:

When we put the Budget together in May, obviously we weren’t predicting, and no one was predicting, the global financial crisis which then emerged.

That is the Deputy Prime Minister. The deputy leader in the Senate said:

In the May budget the government was acutely aware of the risks posed by the global financial crisis.

Those statements are contradictory and I am asking the minister to comment on them.