Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I will take that interjection from Senator Johnston. He said, ‘Oh rubbish!’. These are not figures we have made up; these are figures of the Australian Government Actuary. So you can quibble with Finance’s figures, you can quibble with the Australian Government Actuary, but the reality is you are exposed in this debate. I note the shadow minister, Mr Robert, has just walked in to see. He claimed in the Financial Review, ‘This is not the way you do costings; you look at future debt’. Well, through you, Madam Acting Deputy President: Senator Ronaldson, maybe you could explain to your shadow minister that this is the form of budget costing that Mr Costello introduced. The reality here is that we have an opposition happy to play politics, happy to push for something that they never funded in government, that they have not funded properly this time. The opposition want to impose a $1.7 billion fiscal cost over four years on the federal budget. It is extraordinary.

But the big question is this: where is Mr Robb, who says, ‘I’m the great keeper of the accounts; I’m the shadow finance minister—in fact, I should be the shadow Treasurer, I’m so good at keeping the accounts; I’m so good at doing our costings’. Where is Mr Robb? Mr Robb is the shadow finance minister who presided over a $10.6 billion black hole in your election costings.