Senator CORMANN (Western Australia—Minister for Finance) (14:51): Firstly, Senator Leyonhjelm is absolutely right: we are totally focused on dealing with the debt and deficit disaster that we have inherited from the previous government, because we believe that we have a responsibility to our children and grandchildren to leave our country in a stronger and better position than we found it in and with better prospects. The previous government, having inherited a very strong fiscal position, having inherited a position with no government net debt—a $20 billion surplus, money in the bank, more than $1 billion— The PRESIDENT: Pause the clock. Senator Leyonhjelm: Mr President, a point of order: the specific question was, do you consider a Commonwealth entity's decision to adopt ethical investing criteria to be a significant decision? The PRESIDENT: The minister has about half of his time to answer the question. I draw the minister's attention to the question. Senator CORMANN: Of course, the question also went to maximising the return for the Commonwealth from its investments. The point I was about to make was that, in the last year of the Howard government, the federal government was collecting more than $1 billion in net interest payments, on the back of a positive net asset position, whereas, of course, now we have to pay more than $1.2 billion in debt interest to service the debt that Labor left behind. Of course, we would absolutely expect every one of the Commonwealth organisations to invest, to maximise return, and these are important decisions. (Time expired)