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May 15th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Updated
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has spent the day defending the Government’s delivery of a $19 billion budget deficit, rather than the surplus promised last year.
It has given the Opposition ammunition to question the credibility of the budget figures, given previous forecasts have been wrong.
The day in Parliament began with Prime Minister Julia Gillard emotionally introducing bipartisan legislation to raise the Medicare levy to help pay for DisabilityCare, but regular hostilities resumed in Question Time.
The political folly of making such a strong pledge to return to surplus was front of mind when Mr Swan gave his traditional post-budget address to the National Press Club.
The Treasurer said the economic conditions underpinning this budget were so rare they could not have been forecasted.
“We have coped with and responded to what has been a complex, nuanced, changing policy environment,” he said.
“But it doesn’t really lend itself to public commentary and reporting.
“So if I did stand up here last year and say ‘oh well, look, I’m just not sure about that surplus number and it might disappear in six months time if A, B, C and D happens’, I know what people would have been reporting.
“I do hope we have now a much more informed discussion about all of these things and I look forward to playing my part in making that a much more informed discussion than it’s been.
“And I accept my role in it in saying that maybe I’ve not done enough in that area, I should do more, I will, I hope you (the media) do too.”
Question Time
The Government’s budget catchphrases were peppered throughout questions from Labor backbenchers during Question Time, although the mood was perhaps more muted than expected, after an election-year budget.
But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott led the Coalition’s attack.
“Given that the Government is now forecasting a deficit of $19 billion for this year, how can Australians trust any of the commitments in last night’s budget?” Mr Abbott said.
His treasury spokesman, Joe Hockey, pursued Mr Swan by drawing on the Coalition’s twin themes of debt and deficit.
“I refer to the Treasurer’s answer where he said debt will peak at $356 billion,” he said.
“Treasurer, if the debt-cap limit is $300 billion, why don’t you have the courage to increase the debt-cap limit on your watch?”
Mr Swan replied: “What the shadow treasurer is doing is quoting market value, which, admittedly, does appear in the budget papers, but what is issued is face value, and I’ve said to him earlier, we are below the cap.
“I know he wants to try and confuse this because he wants to be a fiscal fear-monger and ape the tactics of the Tea Party in the United States and run around the place saying that debt is unsustainable.
“Net debt is low.”
The Coalition’s education spokesman, Christopher Pyne, asked the Treasurer to confirm whether the budget revealed $3.1 billion in national partnerships and targeted program funding for schools will be cut, but only $2.8 billion redirected to a new school funding model.
“Another question, another fiddle with the figures, Speaker,” Mr Swan replied.
Meanwhile, Mr Hockey has signalled the Coalition will respond to Labor’s decision to axe the baby bonus when Mr Abbott delivers his budget in reply speech on Thursday night.
Labor has announced plans to abolish the $5,000 payment as part of budget savings measures.
It will be replaced it with a $2,000 payment through the means tested family tax benefit.
“We’ll hear about our response to that tomorrow night from Tony Abbott and also next week from myself at the press club,” Mr Hockey told Channel 10.
“We are still going through the numbers. I think that’s the responsible thing.”
Topics:
budget,
federal-parliament,
parliament,
government-and-politics,
business-economics-and-finance,
federal-government,
australia
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Source Article from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-15/opposition-attacks-swan-on-broken-surplus-pledge/4692194
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