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Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Page: 13608

Mining

Mr HOCKEY (North Sydney) (14:13): My question is to the Treasurer. Given the number of secret deals, compromises, negotiated agreements and special arrangements that have been entered into by the government to pass its mining tax through the House of Representatives and the $3 billion hit to the revenue estimates due to increased state royalties, how does the Treasurer expect to fund the $6 billion hole he has created in the mining tax?

Mr SWAN (Lilley—Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer) (14:13): The shadow Treasurer should not judge everybody else by his standards. He has got a $70 billion crater in his budget bottom line and he has got the hide to stand up in this House and ask us about our forward estimates. What you will see from this government, and what you will continue to see, is very strict fiscal discipline. We will bring our budget back into surplus in 2012-13 and we will give an update of our budget in the normal way through the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook. We will do all of those things because we are serious about fiscal policy. The hide of those getting up to argue about a hole in the budget when they have a $70 billion hole in theirs just belies the fact that they have completely lost the plot when it comes to the national economy. We stand by our published estimates. They will be updated shortly and then the weight will be on the opposition to see how responsible they are.