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Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Page: 4573

Budget

Mr BRIGGS (Mayo) (15:23): Mr Speaker, my question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer advise the House what the budget forecast for the percentage change in the terms of trade in 2010-11 and 2011-12 is?

Mr SWAN (Lilley—Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer) (15:23): The member can find it in the budget papers. I recommend that he opens them up and has a look at them. What they do is come off. They are conservative. I am not going through the numbers in detail. What we have got here is the acute embarrassment of those opposite. I do not engage in pop quizzes in the parliament—

Opposition members interjecting—

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer will resume his seat.

Mr Christensen: He needs a glass of water.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Dawson will leave the chamber for one hour under standing order 94(a). The Treasurer has the call.

Mr Dutton: Did you find it?

Mr SWAN: No, I have not bothered to look for it because there is no way in the world that I am going to spend my time in the parliament playing the games of those opposite or playing pop quizzes. What we are on about here is serious policy. What we are seeing from those on the other side of the House is that they have no alternative vision for our country—

Mr Pyne: Mr Speaker, on a point of order: as the whole budget forecast is predicated on the answer to this question, you would think the Treasurer would simply know the answer. If he does not, he should sit down.

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer is aware of the requirement to directly relate his answer to the question. It is not compulsory for him to take the full four minutes, but the Treasurer has the call.

Mr SWAN: I do not come into this House to play pop quizzes; I come in here to argue very serious policy and we are seeing none from the other side of the House. We had a Leader of the Opposition who could not talk about jobs in his budget reply, and the same for the shadow Treasurer. Both of them failed to talk about the floods and their impact on the Australian economy, nor did they address the consequences of having our terms of trade at 140-year highs. What we have got is a group of people who are absolutely unqualified to put forward an alternative economic policy for this country and it is on display for everybody to see.