PRIME MINISTER:
It is a real thrill to be associated with the Australian Netball Diamonds and to help to start their campaign for gold at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. I’ve been a netball dad for about 20 years. Yes, I’m the Prime Minister of our country, but I am a netball dad and it’s very important that we support sport, particularly women’s sport. Netball has not always been given the attention that it deserves as one of the really big participation sports for Australia women and girls.
QUESTION:
Has a decision been made on the debt tax?
PRIME MINISTER:
No-one ever said that it was going to be easy to tackle Labor's debt and deficit disaster, but we were elected to get the Budget back under control. We will honour the commitment that we gave to the Australian people pre-election to get the Budget back under control, but we will do it in ways that are fair. It is important that we are all in this together because if we're all in it together, if we're all chipping in something we can chip away at the disastrous inheritance that the former government left our country.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, what about your commitments on infrastructure which are very expensive? Can you maintain those commitments or are they going to have to come back in line with the Budget emergency as well?
PRIME MINISTER:
Everything in this Budget is about building a stronger economy so there are a whole range of changes. Some of them will be popular. Many of them will not, but all of the changes in this Budget are fundamentally about building a stronger economy; about getting debt and deficit down, about trying to get Government programmes onto a sustainable basis for the medium and long-term but also – very importantly – improving the muscles and sinews of our economy and that's what infrastructure is. Infrastructure is what enables us to get to work, to get home and the more time we spend stuck in traffic jams, the less time we are productively at work or the less time we're spending with our families.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, what about Theresa Gambaro and in fact Peter Costello's argument that a debt tax is effectively a broken promise that won't deliver much economic gain at all?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm confident that this is a Budget that keeps our commitments, but above all else I'm confident that this is a Budget that's fair. That's what the Australian people elected us to do. They elected us to take tough but necessary decisions to address the debt and deficit disaster that Labor left us, but they want us to do it in ways that are fair. I'm going to be able to look people in the eye on Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning and beyond and say we are all in this together, we are all doing our bit.
We are all playing a part in the fiscal repair job that Australia needs if we are going to build our prosperity, build our strength as a nation in the years and decades to come.
Thank you.
[ends]