Annette Hurley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I quote here from Lindsay Tanner from Wednesday, 16 September in the House of Representatives:

In the 2007-08 budget and pre-election period, the previous government committed to $117 billion in new policy over five years. This pro-cyclical spending put upward pressure on inflation and interest rates. At the height of the boom, with the economy growing at around four per cent annually, the previous government was projecting growth in government spending of 4.5 per cent in real terms in 2007-08. This level of spending meant that despite there being an underlying cash surplus in 2007-08 of 1.7 per cent of GDP, the budget was actually in structural deficit of around 1.2 per cent of GDP or roughly $12 billion.