We’ll just leave these here …

“The Coalition won’t shirk the hard decisions needed to get the budget back into surplus. Living within your means is not mindless austerity — it’s simple prudence.” — Tony Abbott, May 2013

“There is a budget emergency.” — Tony Abbott, August 2013

“Thanks to Labor’s poor management over five years, there is now a budget emergency.” — Tony Abbott, May 2013

“There was a devastating situation under the former government. But as an emergency services volunteer I know … if you get to the scene of the fire, immediately the fire starts to ease.” — Tony Abbott, March 2015

“Labor were the fire — we are the fire brigade.” — Tony Abbott, March 2015

“We are the fire brigade, the budget debt and deficit disaster that Labor left us is the fire and we’re in the process of putting it out.” — Tony Abbott, May 2014

“If we don’t get the budget back under control and do it reasonably quickly, we will be setting ourselves up to fail.” — Tony Abbott, May 2014

“Within a decade, the budget surplus will be 1 per cent of GDP.” — Tony Abbott, August 2013

“[The Coalition is] an experienced team that will not just rebuild the economy but also the bonds of trust that should exist between you and your parliament.” — Tony Abbott, May 2013

“As soon as people know there’s a government with an economic strategy to build the country rather than just a political strategy to save its own skin, confidence will start to return to our economy.” — Tony Abbott, May 2013

“We’ll deliver a surplus at least by the relevant date of 2016-17.” — Tony Abbott, September 2013

“We used the term budget emergency because [Labor] keeps promising surpluses but it actually never delivers.” –– Joe Hockey, May 2013