Senator CORMANN (Western Australia—Minister for Finance, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate and Special Minister of State) (14:50): The Labor Party is really getting desperate when they get Senator Conroy to ask questions about the budget and the economy. What I would say to Senator Conroy is that the policy decisions taken by the government improve the bottom budget bottom line by $1.7 billion over the forward estimates. The policy decisions taken by the government on the spending side of the budget improve the budget bottom line by $3 billion. The truth of the matter is that everybody across Australia knows that we have faced additional global economic headwinds. The truth of the matter is that we have had to deal with significant falls in our terms of trade. The truth of the matter is that the price we can achieve in global markets for our key commodity exports like iron ore and coal has significantly dropped. That has had flow-on consequences on the revenue side of the budget because of circumstances outside of our control. What is the government doing? We are implementing our plan for jobs and growth. We are implementing our plan to secure a successful transition from resource investment driven growth to broader drivers of growth, and we are implementing our plan to put our budget on a sustainable foundation for the future. We are doing that by controlling expenditure. We are doing that by putting— The PRESIDENT: Pause the clock! Senator Conroy: Mr President, on a point of order: direct relevance. I asked a question specifically on the deficit and whether it had tripled since the government came to power. That was the question—nothing more. He has not mentioned the word 'deficit' in his 70 seconds. Could you draw him to the question, please. The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Conroy. You did ask the minister if he could confirm that certain figures were correct in the budget, and then you did go on to talk about tripling the deficit. The minister has been answering the question. Senator CORMANN: The projected return to surplus in this budget is consistent with what was previously estimated, in particular in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook before Christmas. The deficit is projected to reduce every year over the forward estimates both in dollar terms and as a share of GDP. We are on a responsible path back to surplus, we are on a believable path back to surplus, and we are doing it in the context of implementing our plan for jobs and growth. We understand that the Labor Party wants to tax more, spend more and borrow more. We know that the Labor Party has a $50 billion black hole because of unfunded spending promises. We know that the Labor Party also has a $20 billion hole in their tobacco excise costings. Right now, our budgetary position is $70 billion better off than it would be under Labor. (Time expired)