Thank you, Mr President.

I did promise that I'll be back.

You're no Arnold Schwarzenegger, that's for sure!

Government senators interjecting—

Order! Ignore the interjections, Senator Cormann.

Just delivering on my promises. Mr President, my question is to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Senator Wong. Can the minister confirm that the government's actual underlying cash balance for the months of July and August 2012 was a deficit of $7.4 billion?

Can I first welcome the senator back. And, yes, we did notice he was gone.

Opposition senators: You missed him!

Yes, I did miss him.

Order! Address the question.

In fact I think Senator Bernardi accused me of experiencing relevance deprivation. There might have been a shadow of truth to that.

Opposition senators interjecting—

That is the nicest thing I have said about Senator Bernardi in a couple of years, Mr President!

Order! Just address the question, Senator Wong.

It is the case that I released on Friday, 16 November the monthly financial statements. The underlying cash balance for the period to 31 August 2012 was a deficit of $7.4 billion. I note that, compared to a budget profile of a deficit of $7 billion, the fiscal balance was a deficit of $5.2 billion compared to a budget profile of fiscal balance year-to-date for 2012-13. I would also make the point that these statements are compared against the budget profile, not against the midyear review. Obviously July and August statements are set against the May budget profile. In fact, the statements are consistent with the midyear review handed down last month, reflecting the further revenue write-downs and weakening global economic conditions since the budget was handed down in May. Senator, I cannot recall the exact number in the question, but I suspect, given my answer, it was probably about right.

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Given the budget deficit for July and August this year was almost $2 billion, or 24 per cent, higher than the average deficit for the same period over the past four years, when Labor was running record high budget deficits averaging $43 billion per year, how can anyone believe the government's promise to deliver a budget surplus this financial year?

This is a government that did what was required in the global financial crisis. It put in place a stimulus package that was opposed by those opposite but has led to a situation where we see an Australian economy over 11 per cent larger than when we came to office. Around about 800,000 jobs have been created in this country over the same period that 27 million men and women around the world have joined unemployment queues. We see, in comparison to that, unemployment of 5.4 per cent here in Australia. We see inflation contained and we see interest rates lower than they ever were under the Howard government. But that is not enough. Those opposite want to come in here and, as always, talk down the economy and refuse to recognise the strength of Australia's public finances.

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Given the Treasurer and this minister for finance delivered a massive blow-out in the deficit for the last financial year—at $43.3 billion, it was four times larger than the $10 billion deficit predicted before the last election—and the government's cash position this year is already worse than it has been on average over the last four financial years, I ask again: why would anyone trust Labor's promise of a surplus in 2012-13?

We have put out our budget; we have put out our midyear review; we have taken billions and billions of dollars worth of savings to recognise the importance of fiscal discipline, to adhere to our fiscal strategy and to do what we said we would do in terms of public finances. By contrast, those opposite beat their chests about fiscal discipline but they never actually demonstrate any of it themselves. Who can forget? We have the shadow Treasurer, beating his chest, doing his best quasi-Terminator routine—Senator Cormann, I think you do a lot better—saying, 'We've got to end this culture of culture of entitlement; we've got to end it,' beating his chest overseas about the ending of the culture of entitlement. Confronted by a baby bonus save that the government has put in place responsibly, suddenly he likens it to the one-child policy in China! That is the sort of hypocrisy over there. (Time expired)