Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr President. The reason for this deterioration is that Labor spends too much in government. There was too much waste and too much mismanagement. If you look at our last period in government, we paid off Labor's debt, we delivered surplus budget after surplus budget, we cut taxes, the economy grew more strongly and we created more jobs. And what happened after six years of Labor? Of course we only have here the report card of five years of Labor, but, in that time, debt ramped up, we had record deficits, we had 43 new or increased taxes, economic growth slowed and unemployment went up. Turning this around is going to be a significant challenge for this government, but it is a challenge that we are committed to meet. Once the Australian people are able to see next week the true state of the budget that we have inherited from the Labor Party, we will repair the budget mess that we have inherited from the Labor Party.