Mr HOCKEY (North Sydney—The Treasurer) (14:09): I thank the honourable member for the question. It was totally unexpected, given that he has done a few press announcements about it earlier today. I agree with the honourable member: it has been the coalition that stopped the boats, it has been the coalition that has closed now nine detention centres, it is the coalition that has saved $2.5 billion from the budget. But let me talk a bit about the PEFO, the Pre-election Fiscal Outlook that is released by the secretary of the Treasury and the secretary of the Department of Finance. Mr Bowen interjecting— Mr HOCKEY: I am coming to you in a minute, china. Just relax. The fact is that it reflects the government's policy at that time and the policy assumptions that form the basis of the government's policy at that time. As we know, the Labor Party assumed that growth in expenditure would be limited to two per cent if they were re-elected. Ms Owens interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Parramatta will desist. Mr HOCKEY: The problem was that it was 3.7 per cent. Oops! So of course Labor claimed they were going to get back to surplus one day into the future, but the assumptions that underpinned it were flawed and there are a number of areas where they were actively deceptive. For example, the Labor Party, if they were re-elected, would have had to put money into the Reserve Bank. Mr Bowen: No. Mr HOCKEY: No? $8.8 billion I had to put into the Reserve Bank, and why? Because the Labor Party when in government had taken extraordinary dividends and in fact materially weakened the capacity of the Reserve Bank to respond to unforeseen circumstances. So we had to put $8.8 billion into the Reserve Bank. Then buried deep in the Economic Statement of the former Treasurer was a commitment to over 14,000 Public Service redundancies, 14,500 Public Service redundancies that the Labor Party did not have the courage to explain to the Public Service. Did they fund those redundancies? No, they did not. Shock and surprise. And there are other areas. They failed to properly finance the ACCC, they took $1.2 billion from Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory in relation to the so-called Gonski funding. We know it is the old story: the Labor Party wrecks the joint, the coalition has to come in to fix it. That is exactly what has happened. That is one of the reasons why I am absolutely positive our forecasts are more accurate than anything they have ever delivered.