Senator WONG (South Australia—Minister for Finance and Deregulation) (14:25): The last part of that question was wrong for the reasons I outlined in the answer to the first question. In terms of risks to the budget, quite clearly the risk to the budget is those opposite: $70 billion of cuts to services that they will have to make should they ever want to form government. Seventy billion dollars of cuts to services do not pay the age pension for two years—two years nonpayment of the age pension. They are the sorts of cuts that those opposite are trying to hide. That is why they have their costings done by catering companies and by accounting companies who are found to have acted unprofessionally. That is why they hide from the scrutiny and transparency of the Parliamentary Budget Office. That is why they will not front up to the Australian people and tell them what they want to do. Senator Birmingham: Mr President, I raise a point of order. The minister has been going on now for some 44 seconds of her one-minute answer. The minister has spent most of that time dealing with the opposition rather than actually addressing the question, which went to the threats of government policy to the budget bottom line. Given that the minister is in fact the finance minister as well as the minister representing the climate change minister, surely she should be able to address these basic issues relevant to the threat to the budget bottom line of the government's abysmal forecasting record. The PRESIDENT: Order! I believe the minister is answering the question, and the minister has 16 seconds. Senator WONG: I have told you, Mr President, that the government has confidence in its budget. When I am asked about threats to the budget I again say: it is those opposite. We make no apology for saying that the assistance is permanent. That is the government's commitment. (Time expired)