Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

As we know, in Australia we are facing tough global economic times. This is because we are dealing with the impact of the global financial crisis, the impact of changes in global credit markets and also the impact of falls on global stock exchanges. This, of course, has been compounded by the oil price hike and the food price hike, and the result is that we have seen across the world both business and consumer confidence take a pounding. You see that in the numbers generated out of the various OECD economies, where five of the seven economies have generated either zero or negative growth in the most recent quarter. These global economic challenges have been compounded for Australia by the domestic economic circumstances which this government inherited. To recap for those opposite—

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