Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

It is very simple: the strategy is to return to surplus, and we have laid out the strategy to do that. We have laid out the details of how we return to surplus. We have made spending cuts and we have exercised substantial spending restraint. As I said, on average over the budget periods real growth in Commonwealth expenditure is one per cent per year. Peter Costello delivered an average of 3.6 per cent per year in his last five budgets. At the conclusion of the forward estimates, Commonwealth govern­ment spending as a proportion of GDP declines under us. That was the test, or one of the tests, that the opposition, in its lead-up to the budget, was propounding. But, if the senator cares about the surplus, he will pass the government savings measures. If he cares about the surplus he will pass the saves. (Time expired)