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

The honourable member asked a question about the credentials of an economic conservative. That is a badge I own with pride. It means this. It means adhering to the orthodoxy outlined by the member for Higgins: to support a budget surplus across the economic cycle. That is our orthodoxy. That, at least as articulated by the member for Higgins—the increasingly smirking member for Higgins—was his orthodoxy. We face at present the challenges of the global financial crisis and the challenges of the part of the cycle that we are in. That is the bottom line. I would also draw the attention of the member for Curtin to action taken most recently by the European Commission. Overnight it released a stimulus package of €200 billion. The President of the European Commission, President Barroso, said:

Exceptional times call for exceptional measures. The jobs and well-being of our citizens are at stake …

The Recovery Plan can keep millions in work in the short-term …

The timely, targeted and temporary fiscal stimulus will help put our economy back on track …

The EU goes on to say:

If we do not act now, we risk a vicious recessionary cycle of falling purchasing power and tax revenues, rising unemployment and ever wider budget deficits.

That is from the EU. The United Kingdom has just introduced a £20 billion stimulus package aimed at a concerted and comprehensive plan. In the United States, under the current Bush administration, fiscal stimulus of US$168 billion will lead to a projected budget deficit of 4.6 per cent of GDP in 2009. In Japan a fiscal stimulus package of ¥7 trillion in August and October will result in a projected forecast deficit of 3.8 per cent of GDP.

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