Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

It all went through the pokies, did it? Note their contempt for working families on low incomes. Note their contempt for pensioners on low and fixed incomes. They do not have a clue what it is like to survive on a low income, but what we know is that if we can give a break to people who deserve a break we will do it—and if we can benefit the Australian economy and create jobs on the way through, all the better. That is exactly what we are doing. Of course, the evidence that is coming out does show that, through December and January, that consumption was strengthened. And so it needed to be, because as it turned out the month of December was a horrible month in the global economy and there was a very sharp contraction of demand right around the world. Our Economic Security Strategy, delivered in payments from 8 December, just arrived in time. Those opposite said at the time that they supported it. They said it on day one, and they have opposed it every day since then. They are not fair dinkum about being bipartisan at all. They are not fair dinkum about anything.

We had the other blinding truth from the shadow Treasurer. Two days ago she said, ‘You could give broad, generalised tax cuts and raise revenue.’ How do you work out that magic pudding? What we want and what we would like is for there to be agreement in this country—not just across the parliament but across the whole community—because this is a national economic emergency in the middle of a global recession, and we in the Rudd government intend to do everything we possibly can to strengthen growth and to support jobs.

When those opposite oppose these measures, as they appear to be doing, they are opposing jobs. That is what they are doing with all this point-scoring and rubbish about Professor Taylor. Professor Taylor does not represent the mainstream thought in the economics profession on this question—far from it. He is an extremist, and at the recent conference of economists in America he was virtually run out and his position was not supported. So they are trying to find some bogus evidence to justify a bogus political position because they cannot support measures they ought to support in the national interest. So we on this side of the House will continue to work responsibly to put in place plans which support jobs and do it in a timely way.

The thing about this package that is so important is that it is timely and it is temporary, because we also understand that these measures should not be put into the budget forever. The Leader of the Opposition indicated before that they should. He wants permanent tax cuts. We are putting in, for the time being, a temporary stimulus. We have tax cuts coming through on 1 July this year and next year, but somehow I think he and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the shadow Treasurer, favour big, generalised tax cuts, which produce bigger deficits in this environment. So they do not know what they stand for. Do they stand for deficits or not? All they stand for is their own miserable political hides, because, if they were really genuinely interested in supporting the 90,000 jobs that this package will support, they would give it their full support right now.

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