Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. What does the final budget outcome for last financial year show us about the need to repair the budget? What are the alternative approaches to fixing the budget?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Capricornia for the question. And I remind the House that this was meant to be the surplus year, according to Labor. In 2010, when they first did a forecast for 2013-14, they said, 'Don't worry—it will be a $5.4 billion surplus'. Then they revised it down to 4.8. Then they revised it down to 4.5. Then they revised it down to 3.3—an ever-diminishing surplus—and then down to 1.9, then 2, then 2.2. And then, just before Christmas, 21 December 2012—a date I will not forget—out comes the member for Lilley saying that we cannot get to surplus: 'We're going to have a deficit; we got it all wrong.' And then, of course, he said, 'We'll have an $18 billion deficit', and I thought, 'Wow, that's quite a turnaround'. It went from a surplus to an $18 billion deficit. And then, it turned out, under the member for McMahon, 'We got it wrong a few months ago; it's going to be a $30 billion deficit'. And of course it turned out to be $48.5 billion.

And Thursday is a special day in the House of Representatives—it's book day! It's Labor book day! I was earnestly searching around for the ever-illusive Labor Party surplus, so I went to reference material. I do note that I do not have a copy of My Story by Julia Gillard here with me, but I thought there must be reference to a surplus in that. And I found one little reference to a surplus: 'Our 2010 election strategy being a promise to return to surplus in 2013 as the best way of countering the opposition's allegations of Labor waste and debt … in making this promise I was relying on Treasury and Finance figures'—Treasury figure over there!—'For complex reasons reality did not live up to what the Public Service professionals said'—there are the complex reasons over there! She goes on to say, 'I inherited this political strategy'. There's a guy that died with a surplus over there! And of course I will go to 'the' book; here it is: the factual details of Wayne Swan as Treasurer. I went to the index of his book. I thought, there must be reference to a surplus there. But there is nothing there! Julia Gillard has more references to the surplus than the guy who said he had delivered them. Oh, dear. You know, my old mate Kevin Rudd is right: it is all fiction over there—fiction when they claimed they were going to deliver a surplus, fiction when they claimed they had delivered a surplus. The problem is that we have to clean up the Labor mess.