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

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Up until now, Australia has been partly insulated from the full impact of the global economic recession, but things are about to get more difficult—much more difficult. The unemployment figures released today show that unemployment is now on the rise. It is a sign of what is to come. This global economic recession is the equivalent of an economic cyclone, spreading from country to country, continent to continent, leaving wreckage in its wake, devastating economies, devastating jobs, and crushing the dreams and the livelihoods of families across the world. The cyclone started in the United States, moved to Europe and then hit our major trading partners: China, Japan, Korea and India. Now it is heading in our direction.

When you know an economic cyclone is coming, there are two things that you can do. You can follow the Liberal Party plan and do nothing; you can do nothing, just sit tight and hope that it simply passes you by—because, remember, the Liberals have already said that the global financial crisis has been overhyped. The alternative is decisive action, and this government stands for decisive action—to do everything possible, to do everything in our power to prepare for it while there is still time. That is what this government’s Nation Building and Jobs Plan is all about: supporting our jobs and small businesses before the brunt of the global economic recession hits Australia’s shores. It is not a silver bullet—there is no magic medicine available to cure all the ills of the global economic recession—but every responsible government around the world must play its part to reduce the impact of this global recession and to help our people.

Almost every government in the developed world is going into deficit to stimulate their economy in the face of the global economic recession. As the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has noted this afternoon:

No other nation’s parliament has refused a major stimulus package in the current environment of unprecedented global economic downturn.

No other country’s parliament—except this parliament, led by this opposition. What the opposition has done by this act of economic sabotage in the Senate is to threaten the jobs, the livelihoods and the businesses of nearly 100,000 Australians. All around the world, governments are taking unprecedented action to support their economies in the face of virtually unprecedented challenges. Yesterday in the United States they agreed on a planned fiscal stimulus of in excess of $1 trillion. Yesterday the United States committed $2 trillion to a further rescue of its banking system. The United States is responding to a crisis which has claimed more than half a million jobs each month since September. So are all governments around the world; so are all parliaments around the world—except the Australian parliament, with an opposition led by the Liberal Party and its vote against a plan to support nearly 100,000 Australian jobs.

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