QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Dr CHALMERS (Rankin—Treasurer) (14:32): We can't believe a word he says. The way that he just characterised my earlier answer has no relationship with reality. But, leaving that aside for one moment, I think the shadow Treasurer, once again, has impeccable timing in asking me about government spending and the budget position in the week that Fitch Ratings agency has reaffirmed Australia's AAA credit rating.

The reason they've done that is that our budget position is one of the strongest in the G20. That's because, unlike those opposite and in ways unrecognisable to them in government, we've banked most of the upward revisions to revenue; we found $100 billion in savings; we delivered two surpluses in our first two years, when those opposite couldn't deliver a single one in nine years; we've got the deficit down to about a fifth of what we inherited from those opposite; we've got debt down by $188 billion since we came to office—and that's saving the Australian people $60 billion in interest.

I remind the shadow Treasurer, when he asks about government spending, that when we came to office spending was about a third of the economy—and we got it down to about a quarter of the economy. They had real spending growth averaging 4.1; we've got it averaging 1.7. They had gross debt peaking at 45 per cent of the economy; we've got it down to 37 per cent of the economy.

But I think the most important thing for those watching at home to understand about the shadow Treasurer's question is that, when he talks about the difference in spending in recent years, one of the things he's most critical of is the fact that we have seen very substantial indexation of government payments, including the age pension. If the shadow Treasurer thinks that indexing the age pension is wasteful spending, then he should say so.

It reminds me, as well, when it comes to the opposition leader's comments, that, in the week when we are investing massive amounts of money to improve bulk-billing in our communities, the opposition leader has said that she doesn't support universal entitlements. The most important universal entitlement in our society and our communities is Medicare, and the opposition leader doesn't support it; she makes that clear.

So, when those opposite talk about spending restraint, what they mean is coming after pensions again, like they did in 2014. They mean coming after Medicare again, like they did in 2014. The opposition leader even plagiarised Joe Hockey's lifters-and-leaners speech, which didn't go real well for him before the 2014 budget.

We'll continue to manage the budget responsibly. Interest rates have come down three times this year already. Inflation is half what we inherited.

We'll stack up our record against yours any day. (Time expired)