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May 14th, 2013 
TREASURER Wayne Swan says he is not worried about key independent MP Tony Windsor saying tonight’s federal budget will be the Treasurer’s last.
Mr Windsor, who gave his support to Mr Swan and Julia Gillard to form government at the 2010 election, said this morning the Treasurer’s time was likely up.
“My guess is he won’t be Treasurer after September,” Mr Windsor said of Mr Swan.
“My guess is there will probably be a change of government.”
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Mr Windsor said he supported moves to lock in 10 years of funding for the NDIS and Gonski schemes.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Mr Windsor said.
“Whether you can actually forecast that far out I think there would be some questions over that.”
He said he wanted the Baby Bonus scrapped in tonight’s budget.
“Hopefully that disappears or at least the nappies taken off,” he said.
Mr Swan this morning brushed off Mr Windsor’s comments.
“That is the least of my concern,” he said when asked if he believed tonight’s budget would be his last.
“I’ve run for parliament on any number of occasions and I will continue to run proud of what has been achieved and going to the next election with the expectation we will win that election.
“When I get up every day I don’t think about what the opinion polls are saying and what the political commentary is saying.
“You know what I think about? I think about making our country better and stronger and I think about what we do for future generations and that’s what this budget is about.”
Speaking ahead of a lock-up for media to consider the budget papers, Mr Swan said the budget would be “about the future”.
“What tonight is about is keeping our economy strong,” he said.
“Tonight is about the big investments.”
But Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said Mr Swan could not be trusted to deliver forecasts over 10 years.
“If Wayne Swan’s lines don’t stack up from one year to the next how can you believe his lines over 10 years,” he said.
“When Wayne Swan threatens Australia that he is going to deliver the same sort of budget tonight that he’s delivered for the last five years, We should be both alert and alarmed.
“All we want is an honest budget.”
Greens MP Adam Bandt said Mr Swan would deliver a budget “full of dumb cuts”.
He said the Greens would not give their support to any cuts to universities.
“If it requires separate legislation we won’t be voting for it,” Mr Bandt said.
Earlier, in a prepared statement, Mr Swan said Australians will be spared “cuts to the bone” but should brace for a disciplined future,
The Treasurer said he has juggled a unique set of circumstances to produce a budget that focuses on jobs and economic growth.
“The dramatic fall in government revenues has meant critical choices about Australia’s future have to be made,” he said in a statement released on Tuesday.
BIG DAY: Treasurer Wayne Swan at work in his “other” office in Treasury ahead of this week’s budget.
“I could present a budget that outlines a radical round of cuts to the bone that would threaten jobs, business and growth and put our economy at risk in pursuit of a faster return to surplus.”
But a Labor government and the Australian people would rightly never accept that cost, he said.
The treasurer will announce a multibillion dollar deficit for 2012/13 on Tuesday amid revenue writedowns stemming from a high Australian dollar and global financial pressures.
“The budget I will present tonight will outline a sensible and methodical approach that puts jobs and growth first, while ensuring we made the responsible decisions to strengthen the budget over time,” Mr Swan said.
The budget would be in surplus by at least $25 billion, with an estimated $40 billion in extra revenue, if income tax cuts introduced between 2005-2008 had not been put into place.
It shows income tax cuts, the majority of which were delivered in the last few years of the Howard/Costello government during the pre-GFC mining boom, were “having a big influence on the present federal government’s budget”.
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