…Budget of the Howard Government. It’s a Budget which is designed to build on the successes and the strengths of the last couple of years, to set Australia up for future opportunities which are very exciting. Great opportunities for young people, for families, for older people in Australia as we put our house right, as we get the economic fundamentals right and as we create great opportunities for future Australians. That’s going to be the message of tonight’s Budget.

How big an impact will Asia have on the Budget?

Look if it hadn’t been for the Asian crisis Australian growth would have been stronger that’s the fact, but the Asian crisis is outside our control, we didn’t cause it, we can’t stop it. We are taking efforts along with the international community to try and minimise the fallout. But if you’re trying to run good economic policy you’ve got to prepare for contingencies. We started preparing two years ago. If we hadn’t taken the steps that we took two years ago, where would we have been in the Asian fallout now. For Australia’s sake that was the right decision, it strengthened us against the worst of the external downturn and it will set us up for better opportunities when Asia turns.

Is there much left for you to announce Mr Costello, is there much left for you to announce tonight?

Oh well look, tonight will be an announcement of where the country’s come from, where it’s going to, how the Government’s going to help families, how the Government’s going to help older Australians and I’d recommend that people watch it.

Will it bring home the bacon?

I think the bloke who said that has gone out of pig farming, hasn’t he?

Mr Costello, you’ve talked about extra spending on health, can you say why you’ve decided health is so important?

Well health is important because it’s one of those basic essential needs. Nothing’s more important to people than their health and the Commonwealth has increased funding in relation to hospitals. But not just hospitals, in relation to doctors’ services and one of the biggest growing areas of our Budget is also in relation to pharmaceuticals. So there is a major investment in the health of the nation here and that’s right, that’s proper, that’s one of the basic needs. You see look, if you can cut out waste, the kind of waste that was going on under the Labor Party. People were getting benefits that weren’t entitled to them. The great thing about it is this, you can direct benefits to those who are entitled. And that’s one of the things we’ll be doing.

Is it a Budget that’s going to win back group such as the elderly who have been very upset by some of this Government’s decisions?

Well I think older Australians have benefited from a lot of Government decisions. This was the Government that gave self funded retirees the same tax free threshold as pensioners. Nobody had ever done that before. This is the Government which is going to reduce taxes on savings, that’s a wonderful thing for older Australians. So this is a Government that has had older Australians very strongly in mind.

Could you comment on the dollar please?

Well as you know I don’t comment on movements in the dollar. We have a currency that responds to external events and in trade weighted terms it has been remarkably stable over a long period of time. And if you look at it, it has been trading at 57, 58, 59 for a long period of time and that is the kind of adjustment that you’d expect. Thanks.