Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment Participation) Share this | Hansard source

Well, those are the facts, and if people do not want to talk about these things and want to live in a bubble then they have got a problem. The Prime Minister quite rightly said today prior to question time that the impacts of the global financial crisis on our economy will be real. Its impact on our businesses will be real. Its impact on our families will be real. Its impact on our workers will be real, and its impact on our country will be real.

The first thing you have to do if you are going to tackle a problem is identify it and, indeed, recognise it. Those opposite are talking as if there is no global financial crisis. They are acting as if nothing has changed this year—

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