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

Just occasionally there is a question from the Leader of the Liberal Party which really takes your breath away. Uniquely across the world, in terms of what has happened to the world in the global economic crisis, we have positive news in terms of retail sales in December—and those opposite want to simply cry foul and say it is not good enough. Across the world, retail collapsed in December. In the United States there was a massive collapse in retail. You saw it also in the data I referred to yesterday from Westfield in New Zealand and other sources. The retail sales data produced officially today demonstrate that we have, through the measures provided by the government at the end of last year, investment by consumers in consumption which helps support all the businesses employing people in the retail sector.

Those opposite—who claim from time to time, depending on the season, to stand up for the interests of small business—fail to understand how much small business is concentrated in the retail sector. Are you seriously saying to the government that the investment which we made through that allocation to families last year, the impact which it has had on retail sales and the flow-through effect which it has had on the small retail businesses of this country is of no consequence? That statement demonstrates one thing: those opposite have embarked upon a campaign of negativity, negativity, negativity. We are in the business of embarking upon a positive course of action to see the nation through, and the Leader of the Opposition should think better of the retail sector in the future.

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