Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Leichhardt for his question. He certainly has a good following in Leichhardt—I am not sure about in the chamber. The government is committed to delivering long-term, sustainable growth for the future Australian economy, and all of the major domestic policy initiatives of the government are connected to this ultimate objective, whether in infrastructure, the Education Revolution, the national broadband network, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme or, most particularly, delivering a strong budget surplus that puts downward pressure on inflation and interest rates. That is particularly important in the event that we have further problems in international financial markets like what we have seen over the past few days. That simply underlines the importance of having strong fiscal settings and a very strong budget surplus in this country.

I note that the new Leader of the Opposition has described the international financial circumstances as ‘the gravest economic crisis globally in any of our lifetimes’. It certainly is a very serious financial crisis internationally, but some might debate whether the wider implications for the global economy are equivalent to things like the 1970s oil shock or the recessions of the early 1980s or early 1990s. Time will perhaps tell. I note the Leader of the Opposition is a bit sensitive on this point.

There is no question that there are very serious challenges facing the global economy. Australia is not immune from the implications of these challenges, but we are well positioned—indeed, better positioned than almost any other developed nation in the world—to ride out these challenges. We still have reasonably strong economic growth, low unemployment, good regulators, strongly capitalised banks, a strong budget surplus and, of course, money continuing to flow from the mining boom and particularly strong business investment, as the most recent data indicates. We are well placed to deal with these problems, and it is very important that we take a balanced view of the nature of these challenges and do not talk down the Australian economy. I note that the Leader of the Opposition’s sole criticism of the Treasurer—

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