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

What I would say to the good senator is that just because interest rates are comparatively low today does not mean that is going to be the case forever, and the debt growth trajectory that we have inherited from the Labor-Greens government is unsustainable. It does actually expose Australia to unacceptable levels of risk, which is why we are focused on bringing the debt growth trajectory down to stabilise debt and over time to reduce it as a share of the economy and in dollar terms. That is something that we need to do.

Australia has terms of trade which are more than twice as volatile as the OECD average. We are very much a trading nation. We are an exporting country. If you look, for example, at what has happened to the price of iron ore in recent years, representing more than 20 per cent of—