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

I thank the honourable member for his question. As the world struggles with the global economic recession, what we have seen in the week or so since this parliament last sat is further disturbing global economic data. First of all, the Japanese economy contracted by 3.3 per cent in the December quarter. This is the largest quarterly contraction in the Japanese economy since the 1974 oil shock. Bear in mind that this is the second largest economy in the world. It is Australia’s largest export market. It is of direct consequence to this economy and of direct consequence to the health of the wider Asia-Pacific and global economy. Further, we have seen data from Germany—the world’s third largest economy. The German economy contracted by 2.1 per cent in the last quarter of 2008—the largest quarter-on-quarter contraction since German unification in 1990. These movements in such large economies in the December quarter are of profound significance in shaping the economic environment which this nation confronts in 2009.

This House debated at some length our approach to stimulus in both the House of Representatives and the Senate on a nation-building plan for the future. The logic was clear: to provide stimulus in the short term in order to support growth and jobs and, in the longer term, to build the infrastructure our country needs for the 21st century—to build the schools we need for the 21st century; to make sure that every primary school in the nation has the sorts of facilities that make it possible for children to get the best education on offer; to make it possible for people to know that, when their kid goes to a local primary school, they are going to have a 21st century library and they are going to have the best classrooms possible; and, through both those measures, to be able to provide stimulus for local jobs.

On Saturday morning I ran into a principal from a local parish Catholic school in Lindfield, which is in the seat of Bradfield. Is it Holy Name Primary School?

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