Senator BRANDIS (Queensland—Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (14:17): Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Is the minister aware that the Prime Minister assured the parliament on 10 May this year that the government will be: … returning the budget to surplus in 2012-13, on time, as promised, as I said to the Australian people at the last election. Does the minister stand by the Prime Minister's statement that a budget surplus in 2012-13 was a promise—not an objective, not an aim, not a goal but a promise?