Behind the Budget with Wayne Swan

Go behind the scenes with Wayne Swan as he prepared the 2009 Federal Budget

Added 10 months ago

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So, when I got home and you weren't home, yesterday afternoon, I went out and had a walk.

Just cleared my head because I haven't actually been outside for about two weeks.

I've been locked up in planes and meetings and all that sort of stuff, so ...

It feels different to last time, the budget.

Yeah, I think it is. I think last year people were really focussing on the implementation of all of the election commitments and, of course,

you know, the world's just completely turned over since about the middle of last year and now people are really focussing on the impact of the global recession, so there's an entirely different debate.

The debate's about how we can cushion ourselves from the worst effects of a pretty savage global recession that people see on their television screens every night.

Do you think about these people when you're putting the budget together?

I think about them all the time.

That lady on the corner over there, in that house there, she's a pensioner. She's on her own.

She'd be one of the people doing it really tough.

Well, when you go into the unit and you see all those blokes up in the ceiling, what you actually see is economic stimulus in action, and it makes me feel terrific, 'cause I was talking to the guy who is running the show here.

He's a contractor from Redcliffe and he's put on quite a few employees just in the last couple of weeks.

So to see the link between taking a decision to put in place this investment in social housing, particularly repair and renovation, and be here today seeing people being employed, doing something for the community and enhancing a tremendous community asset, in this case seniors housing, just makes me feel terrific.

Wayne Swan's been extraordinary, the way in which he both deals with the enormous responsibility of what's facing Australia with the global pressures that are coming our way.

He knows, like other senior cabinet ministers know, that Australia's not immune from the impact of the global financial crisis and Wayne, like each and every one of us, really understands the personal impact of this, the personal impact on people losing their jobs and, for him, I know that that's really at the core of what he thinks about in framing this budget.

Well, it's good to be down here with all of the troops because we're getting to the final stages of the budget and, when you get to the final stages of the budget, they're generally here for long hours and well into the night.

I think everyone's feeling the pressure of this budget because the circumstances are so extraordinary, so extraordinary circumstances mean that we're producing a pretty historic budget.

Probably the most difficult circumstances for any budget in the last 75 years.

Well, we're three days out from the budget and we're back up in Parliament House.

We're putting the finishing touches to the budget speech and also to the Press Club speech.

It's good to be back home. Treasury was pretty good. I enjoyed the company of all of those officials down there,

but now we're into the final days.

Well, the team's going really well. They're working around the clock, really putting in the long hours at the moment.

I've got a terrific team and I don't know what I'd do without them.

Well, Kim's coming down today and I'm catching up with her and Matty. We're going to have a cup of coffee

and I'm catching up with my mother-in-law as well.

As Mother's Day is tomorrow, I'm not going to see them then, so we'll catch up today.

What sort of budget to you think your son-in-law will give?

A very good one, considering the circumstances.

He'll be great.

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