Meanwhile it's clear that the Coalition, as it always does, stands for responsible economic management.

This is an argument, an ongoing argument about spending and taxing and we'll hear a lot more of it over the next five and a half weeks or so. Let's just look at some of the facts - three of the four highest spending years of the past decade have been under a Coalition government.

The first two years of your government with 25.6 per cent, last year 25.8 per cent. Projections for this year, 25.8 per cent.

The Rudd and Gillard governments only delivered one budget with a spending of GDP ratio over 25.1 per cent.

Well, let's look at tax. It's a similar story. You're saying Labor is taxing more ...

Under John Howard's government tax to GDP ratio hit 24.3 per cent, didn't it? It was at above 23.7 per cent for six years. The highest ...

... tax to GDP ratio under Rudd Gillard was 21.7, so the biggest-taxing governments over the past, over recent years have been Coalition governments.