Prime Minister Julia Gillard must use her National Press
Club address on Wednesday to reveal the true state of the federal budget,
shadow treasurer Joe Hockey says.
Hockey said Gillard had avoided tough questions on the
economy since the government dumped its "iron-clad" budget surplus
guarantee in December.
He said the prime minister won't say how much the fifth
successive Labor deficit will be, or how much the debt is projected to rise to.
She must also come clean about how she intends to pay for
unfunded promises, such as the $8 billion a year needed for the National
Disability Insurance Scheme and the $6.5 billion needed for the Gonski
education reforms, he said.
"Now that Labor have dumped their 2012/13 surplus
'guarantee', when does Labor now say they will deliver a surplus?" Hockey
asked in a statement on Tuesday.
"Will the prime minister give another-iron clad
guarantee to return the budget to surplus?"
He also wanted Gillard to explain how she intended to keep
her promise of paying off net debt by 2020/21, given that would require
surpluses of almost $30 billion a year from 2016/17.
Hockey said if she didn't answer his questions she would
fail the standard she set in April 2011 when she said, "You can't run this
country if you can't manage its budget".
