Mr ACTING SPEAKER —I call the honourable member for Canning.

Mrs JOHNSTON —Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker. My question is addressed—

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr ACTING SPEAKER —Order! The honourable member will resume her seat.

Mr Adams —What about the promises?

Mr ACTING SPEAKER —I would like to give a promise that some people will go for a walk if the chair cannot hear the question. In particular I draw to the attention of the honourable member for Hotham—who, as Manager of Opposition Business, has more than a little indulgence—that he is using it. I call the honourable member for Canning.

Mrs JOHNSTON —Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker. My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Is the Treasurer aware of a proposal to block more than $7 billion of the government's deficit reduction program? Can the Treasurer inform the House of the economic consequences if such a proposal were to succeed? Is the Treasurer aware of any additional proposals to block further budget measures?

Mr COSTELLO —Mr Acting Speaker, the budget obviously has been well received and widely acknowledged as fair and equitable—acknowledged as fair and equitable because this government had the courage to deal with the things that Labor never would. Labor would not deal with extremely generous tax concessions on superannuation. Labor would not get a contribution to private health insurance from high income earners. Labor could not deal with tax avoidance or tax rorts. That is why the budget obviously has been received well and acknowledged to be fair.

Before the budget, the shadow Treasurer—he who suffers from relevance deprivation syndrome—said:

If Mr Costello produces a fair and sensible and economically responsible budget there will be no problem from us.

That is what he said. Plainly, what has stung the Labor Party is the reception of the budget and it is now trying to manufacture reasons to oppose it.

Let me tell you what the member for Holt—he who suffers from the relevance deprivation syndrome—said on 12 May. He said:

The budget does need to be restored to balance or surplus.

Let me tell you what he said on 18 August 1996:

What we should be targeting is balance in three years time, not a massive surplus in two.

This budget brings a balance in three years time. This budget met the test that was set by the Labor Party before it came down. That is the point.

Mr Gareth Evans —At what cost, you goose?

Mr COSTELLO —You set a test; we hurdled it. As a result the Labor Party is now in the business of trying to manufacture reasons to oppose it. This is the most irresponsible opposition in a generation.

It had a meeting last Friday to try to manufacture reasons why it could oppose a budget that met every one of the tests that it laid down before the budget. It was so embarrassed by the way in which the budget was received it had to try to manufacture reasons for opposing it. Without wit, without any intelligence, without any coherent economic strategy, the opposition sat down and said it would vote against $7.2 billion of measures over four years.

But it does not just oppose $7.2 billion over four years; it opposes $19 billion over four years, and, if you want to add in Telstra—for which this government had a mandate and for which the opposition had a secret plan—$27 billion in headline terms over four years. There can be no misunderstanding. This is an opposition which is playing the role of saboteur.

Having been unable to fix Australia's budget problem, you are determined to let no one else do it. You have set out on a course to try to sabotage the rescue of the Australian accounts. You are determined to ensure that Australia does not get back to a balance. You want to make sure that we do not demonstrate to the Australian people what you could never produce.

This is an opposition which is playing with the futures of Australian young people. You are playing with the future of young people by building up debt which they will have to service for the rest of their lives. You are playing with them because, after five years of growth, you could not balance the accounts. You now have a proposal, after eight years of growth, not to balance the accounts—

Mr Kelvin Thomson —Mr Acting Speaker, I raise a point of order. The Treasurer is constantly breaching standing order 59. I ask you to direct him to make his remarks through the chair rather than accusing you of these things.

Mr ACTING SPEAKER —I say to the Treasurer and to all members that the chair would like that standing order to be followed. It is often breached, and people will often be reminded of it.

Mr COSTELLO —Let there be no doubt about this: this is an opposition which is playing with the future and prospects of young Australians, and what this opposition objects to more than anything else is the fact that this is a strategy to reduce interest rates. This is a strategy for small business. This is a strategy for home buyers. This is a strategy for sustainable growth. This is a strategy to deal with the failures of Labor. And this is an opposition which is prepared to sabotage all of those measures. This is an opposition which does not want lower interest rates. This is an opposition that does not want sustainable growth. This is an opposition that does not want to balance the accounts. This is an opposition that does not want to give young Australians a future and hope.

No wonder those opposite are suffering from relevance deprivation syndrome. Let me make it clear: no-one has made them more irrelevant than themselves. They have dealt themselves out of this budget. They are now no longer relevant because they oppose everything. This is a government which, in the Senate, will make the measures which are required to ensure that its strategy comes to fruition, because it is a strategy for the future, for future Australians.