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

Of course, the level of gross debt is openly and transparently published on a regular basis through the Australian Office of Financial Management. What I would say to Senator Marshall is what I have said before: gross debt is lower than what it would have been if Labor had been in government. We are in a better position now because of the decisions the government has been able to implement.

Just since the election we have been able to pass another $25 billion worth of budget improvement measures. Over the current medium term, because of the net effect of the spending decisions the government have made and implemented, the budget will be better off to the tune of about $250 billion. That is $250 billion that we do not have to borrow or that will be available to pay down debt once we are back in to surplus. Of course, under our government, we are on a credible path back to surplus—not because of any help from the Labor Party, I would hasten to add. Having left behind an unaffordable, unfunded and unsustainable spending growth trajectory, having created the mess that we are still dealing with and having left behind the chaos that we are having to fix they have, of course, tried to stop us at every step of the way to getting the budget back into the strongest possible position.

Indeed, in the lead-up to the last election, by their own admission and based on their own pre-election costings, Labor went to that election with bigger deficits, to the tune of about $16.5 billion. So on this side of the chamber we do not take any lessons from the Labor Party. I think that people across Australia understand well that it is always the Labor Party that makes a mess of our budget and it is always comes down to a Liberal and National Party government to fix their mess.