Anthony Macdonald

It's not a Labor thing.

It's just about responsible spending and

It's about running balanced budgets, surpluses in good times, borrowing funds from future generations by using debt and deficits in bad times.

And the government's balance sheet, and that's your balance sheet and my balance sheet, James.

We are that balance sheet.

It shouldn't just be there to fund everyday items.

And disability support, healthcare, intersection of both of these, which the NDIS is, that's an everyday item.

So we've had deficits in 14 of the past 16 financial years for most years just to fund everyday spending.

Now, the deficits we should be drawing on at times like COVID when we really need it to protect the economy.

And if we want to have things like NDIS, that's great and it's incredibly worthy and everything.

We've got to find room for it within the government's income receipts, not just borrowing from future generations to pay for services that are needed today.

So it'd be nice if this was the start of a new era.

And just smash society's expectations of the government handout.

Start by putting that 20.6 cents a litre back on the petrol price tomorrow.

I don't know what fuel's like in Melbourne, James, but it's back at $1.85 or so in Sydney today.

Yeah, it's the same in Melbourne, Anthony.

But I know that $1.85 only includes half the fuel excise.

But really, James, it is not wartime pricing.

And I'm not sure it's sending the right message to drivers that we need to be careful with our fuel because this is something that's scarce and we're struggling to get our hands on at the moment.

We've got to get realistic about the budget.