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

I make this point. First, a budget surplus is about a sound fiscal policy which is good for the economy. Good economic management is good for jobs, which is why we have seen more jobs created in the last years than in many previous periods and certainly when compared to many other advanced economies. The second point I would make is that it is not a recipe for social justice to refuse to run sound fiscal policy. If you are going to fund things as this government has, if you are going to fund things like increases to education, increases to the tertiary sector, increases to child care, increases such as we have in the pay equity space, you have to find the money to do it. Sometimes you do have to make some difficult decisions. But we have found the money to fund these socially progressive Labor things because we do care about these issues. So I reject the proposition that somehow the budget surplus is against fairness. We want to ensure you have a sound budget so you can deliver fairness.