Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

If you had listened to what I said a minute ago, Joe, you would have heard. Our strong terms of trade, and our biggest trading partner, China, which is expected to grow by more than nine per cent next year, make us well placed. You would not want to be anywhere else in the world, but the problem will affect us. No country in the world is immune. In his address to the nation last night, the Prime Minister said:

In the last few weeks, the global financial crisis has moved into a new and dangerous stage.

And that is its effect on the real economy, on growth and jobs, around the world and here in Australia.

Growth will slow, and unemployment will rise.

That is why this package is important and that is why it is important that we act now. All the advice says that the Australian economy will continue to grow. The IMF report on the state of the global economy that was released last week projects two per cent growth in the next year, and that at a time when the rest of the developed world is expected to go backwards. The report said:

The world economy is now entering a major downturn in the face of the most dangerous shock in mature financial markets since the 1930s … The major advanced economies—

those of North America, Europe and Japan—

are already in or close to recession …

So we have to act quickly to make sure that we continue to grow and to protect jobs here in Australia. History teaches us that, when an economy slows, responsible governments have to step in and act swiftly and decisively. That is a lesson that governments and central banks have both learnt. That is why, on the weekend, we stepped in to guarantee deposits and bank-to-bank lending to inject confidence into our financial system.

But we also need to give confidence to the people who sit around the dinner tables of Australia—confidence to invest but also confidence to spend; confidence that they will have a job; confidence to buy a house. That is why the Prime Minister announced yesterday a $10.4 billion package to help families, pensioners, carers and first home buyers. The $4.8 billion package for pensioners and carers means singles will receive a $1,400 lump sum payment and couples will receive a $2,100 payment. Carers will also receive $1,000 for each eligible person being cared for.

The important point here is that the package will help all pensioners as well as carers and veterans. There was a fundamental flaw in what the coalition proposed a couple of weeks ago. In my electorate, our package will help 31,000 pensioners and carers. The coalition plan proposed by the former Leader of the Opposition and the current Leader of the Opposition would only have helped 7,000 pensioners in my electorate. Last night I spoke to the president of one of my local senior citizens groups. He told me that the $2,100 will help pay for a very serious operation that he needs to have in the next couple of weeks. He and his wife would not have been covered under the coalition’s plan.

There is another benefit in paying this as a lump sum: by doing this pensioners will get all of the money instead of part of it. If it was part of the base rate, a lot of that money would go to nursing home companies or to housing commissions. I note that on Sydney talkback radio this afternoon, on the Chris Smith program on 2GB, there was a call about this issue. There have been a number of people that have been concerned about this, asking, ‘Will I have access to all the money or will some of the money be sucked out of my account and be given to the place where I live.’ A caller, Vicky, said that her father is a pensioner who has a gold card and currently resides in a hostel. She was concerned that every time her father receives an increase the hostel appears to take more for the cost of his care. Chris Smith praised Justine Elliot, the Minister for Ageing, who he said ‘is the goods’ and ‘has done a lot of things after discussion on talkback programs’.

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