12-May-2011
Portfolio Media Releases
Penny Wong has today gone to extraordinary lengths to divert attention away from Labor’s shame at having to increase the ceiling on government debt to a staggering $250 billion.
“Senator Wong called a hasty press conference at 9.20am to release a sad and sorry little pamphlet based on crystal ball predictions about what a Coalition budget might look like,” Shadow Minister for Finance Andrew Robb said.
“What a coincidence that this occurred at the very moment the Coalition was moving in the parliament for Wayne Swan to explain why, if the government is reigning in its spending and borrowing, he needs to increase the ceiling on government debt from $200 billion to $250 billion.
“The painful reality for Penny Wong and Wayne Swan is had they adopted the more prudent approach the Coalition has long advocated in relation to stimulus and many other wasteful, inefficient and unnecessary programs, they could have been actually delivering a surplus instead of continuing to fantasise about one,” Mr Robb said.
“Just two years ago the government increased the debt ceiling from $75 billion to $200 billion to fund its reckless and wasteful spending. Now it needs to lift the cap to $250 billion because it clearly doesn’t even believe its own rhetoric about tightening the belt.
“If ever there was a symbol of this government’s addiction to spending and borrowing than surely this must be it,” Mr Robb said.