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

Last night the Treasurer presented a budget which returns the budget to surplus on time and as promised, a surplus achieved by taking nearly $34 billion worth of difficult decisions, a surplus at a time when the government is taking less tax out of the economy than Peter Costello took when he was Treasurer. The amount of tax we are taking, as a proportion of GDP, remains below the level it was at when we came to government.

I would also make this point about spending. The budget papers show that, as a proportion of GDP, expenditure gets down to around 23.5 per cent of GDP in 2012-13. Over the budget forward estimates, spending is less than 24 per cent of GDP. The last time that was achieved for a sustained period was in the 1980s. For all the fine words those on the other side like to use to remind us of his economic performance, it was never achieved under Treasurer Costello. As important as the surplus in 2012-13 is, also important are the growing surpluses over time. Surpluses grow each year over the forward estimates because that is the right thing to do.

This is a budget which is right for the economy, but it is also a budget which is about a fairer community. It is a budget which spreads the benefits of the mining boom, fosters opportunity and supports millions of Australians—families and those on modest incomes. It is a budget which invests for the future and helps Australians with cost-of-living pressures. This is a budget, a Labor budget, which demonstrates that a strong economy is the foundation of prosperity but also that prosperity needs to be shared. Opportunity and fairness go hand in hand and that is why we are determined to spread the benefits of the boom. (Time expired)