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

The Nation Building and Jobs Plan that we announced yesterday and, of course, the Economic Security Strategy that we put in place last October do demonstrate how Australia can get through this global recession in better shape than most other advanced economies, because we can use our strengths in fiscal policy and monetary policy to stimulate demand in this economy and to support jobs. That is precisely what we are doing, and that was precisely the intention of the Economic Security Strategy last October. If these retail trade figures today demonstrate anything, they demonstrate how out of touch the Leader of the Opposition and his entire frontbench are with what is actually happening in Australia, because, contrary to the Orwellian language of the Leader of the Opposition earlier, what these retail trade figures show is that the Economic Security Strategy gave a significant boost to demand in December last year, supporting employment, particularly in the retail sector. The December retail trade figures show that retail sales increased by 3.8 per cent in December. You know, that is the biggest monthly increase since August 2000.

See this speech in context