Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Finance, Competition Policy and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. I note that the minister was not able to provide any guarantee about rising interest rates. With $40 billion of the total stimulus not due to be spent until 1 July next year, the government’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge that the economic emergency is receding and the disturbing reality that no federal Labor government has ever managed to have an operating surplus on leaving office, is it not inevitable that the Rudd Labor government will be responsible for rising interest rates, rising taxes and crippling debt as a legacy of their economic mismanagement?