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

Thank you. The senator referred to the latest Treasury estimates. The latest Treasury figures are the published budget figures, which do not include the figures that I think the senator was referring to. I remind him that, in terms of Australia's position, our public finances are in very strong shape. As I have said previously, during the break I had the opportunity to go to the APEC finance ministers' meeting, representing the Treasurer, and also to Washington prior to that, and it really did bring home to me how well Australia is doing on many fronts, certainly in terms of our growth figures, our unemployment figures and our investment figures.