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

These are the facts that those opposite do not want to hear. All they want to do is talk down the Australian economy—how irresponsible of you.

I was also asked by Senator Brandis about surpluses. I am very happy to have a discussion about surpluses, but I am very surprised that this got through the tactics committee, because what we have seen in these last days from the opposition's economic team is completely embarrassing. They are a circus over there. One wonders what Senator Sinodinos must be thinking as he watches my counterpart, Mr Robb, say, 'We can't even say we'll come back to surplus, were we elected, in our first term.' He could not even indicate they would come back to surplus by 2017. Mr Hockey today was again all over the place. Remember, Mr Hockey used to say you would come back to surplus earlier. Now you do not even know when you would. (Time expired)