Ian Verrinder

Well, look, we should be...

We should be having a surplus, really, at some stage.

I mean, we did have two surpluses when Labor came into power.

But, of course, we had the Stage 3 tax cuts, which cut out quite a bit of revenue.

And so as a result of that, we're now back into deficit.

The deficits are slightly less than were predicted back in December because commodity prices have come in much higher.

We're a commodity exporting country.

And one of the benefits, I guess, of the oil crisis is that we're selling our gas at a much higher price.

And so that has helped balance the books a little bit.

In terms of the debt, our gross debt looks to be around about 35% or so, which is the lowest in the developed world.

I mean, it's not great.

And I guess perhaps if we, at some stage, look to...

properly tax our mineral and energy exports, we might be able to resolve that situation.

But we did have a mining tax that was dumped.

And now, of course, there's a big push on to do something about gas as well.

To be perfectly honest with you, a lot of budgets are really dull.

Yes.

They really are.

We try our best to make them sound exciting, but they're actually pretty dull.

But, you know, look, this is the first time I've seen in a very, very long time where somebody has been brave enough to go out on a limb and, you know, to risk being called, you know, broken promise.