QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator GALLAGHER (Australian Capital Territory—Minister for Finance, Minister for the Public Service, Minister for Women, Minister for Government Services and Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (14:04): I don't want to continue the history lesson, but if we look at when you were in government and what we saw when we came to government we inherited $1 trillion of debt forecast from you in 2023.

We have managed to lower debt, to pay down debt. Debt is $173 billion lower under this budget, and we save in the order of $70 billion in interest payments. That's because of the responsible decisions we've taken in this budget, and that is the approach we will continue to take in future budgets: paying down debt, lowering it from what we inherited and making sure the interest payments are lower.