Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

What we have today in this parliament is the government of the day issuing an ultimatum to the parliament for political purposes but refusing to provide the reasons why. Let us be really clear about what we are being asked to do here. The Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook is the document which updates and presents, under the Charter of Budget Honesty, the state of the nation's budget figures to avoid the allegation that either political party ever hides, in government, its position. This document is presented by departments. I have to say that one of the good things about Peter Costello's Charter of Budget Honesty is that it does require that this document, a full update of the Commonwealth budget, is presented during an election campaign without any involvement from either the government of the day or the opposition. In that update, in the election this year, it was demonstrated that the budget position was essentially almost identical to the economic statement that the then Treasurer and then finance minister released—