Mr SWAN (Lilley—Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer) (14:32): I do thank the shadow Treasurer for that question. I think it is the case that we have seen in the national accounts that the Australian economy is robust and that the Australian economy is resilient. It is also the case that we have seen a very unique set of circumstances emerge—particularly on the revenue side of our budget. This unique set of circumstances is driven by a combination of events that we have not seen in the economic history of our country: on one hand, a declining terms of trade, and on the other hand, a very high dollar. The consequence of that has been that there is a challenge to our revenue. At the end of last year, I very clearly made the point to the Australia people that this government's priority would always be to support growth and to support jobs. I made that point at the end of last year very deliberately, because it would have been deeply irresponsible of this government to cut harder, to cut back on jobs and growth, in the face of what was a very significant revenue downturn. That was the consequence of a set of events in our economy that we have not seen ever before. We have now seen nominal GDP growth go below real GDP growth for three quarters in a row. The point that I want to make is this: this government will always put jobs and growth first. Mr Hockey: Speaker, I raise a point of order. It goes to relevance. It was a straight question. Does he stand by his guarantee that the debt will not exceed $250 billion? The SPEAKER: The Treasurer has the call and will refer to the question before the chair. Mr SWAN: Certainly. It brings me to the point that we will always support our economy when there is a threat to jobs and growth. Last year in the budget, what I outlined was the forecast for a whole range of indicators—such as growth and debt. I made the point very clearly then and outlined that we would bring these figures in within the debt cap that I outlined in last year's budget—and that remains. But there is a very clear choice here, because those opposite want to spread fear about debt. There is no doubt about that when we as a country have done so much better than just about every other developed economy in the world, because our priority was to support jobs and growth in our economy. We were opposed every step of the way by those opposite. If they would have had their way back during the global financial crisis, deficits would have been higher and so too would have been debt. Now, we are challenged again. The proposition that they are putting to the people of Australia is that, in the face of a revenue slowdown that we have seen, they would cut harder and hit jobs and growth. The SPEAKER: The Treasurer will return to the question. Mr SWAN: We will always support jobs and growth within the context of our medium-term fiscal strategy.