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

I thank the member for his question. We have had a demonstration in this House today of how little the opposition understand about the state of the economy and how little they have to offer in terms of an alternative to cushion the Australian economy in the circumstances of a global recession.

Last October we put forward the Economic Security Strategy to support up to 75,000 jobs. We put it forward for a very good reason. And a few weeks ago we put in place the Nation Building and Jobs Plan to support up to 90,000 jobs over two years. This is a very important point that those opposite just do not seem to understand, so we are going to go through it very clearly. They have not done their homework, they do not understand the nature of the challenge, and the consequence is that they do not have a positive alternative for Australia. The other consequence is that they are now opposing a stimulus to the economy, which will support jobs for Australian workers, without putting up any alternative whatsoever. This package will support jobs for Australian workers.

The opposition somehow think that if we provide a tax bonus or if we provide support to a pensioner or a carer it has nothing to do with job creation. I would have thought it was Economics 101 that if we stimulate demand in the economy and that results in people having employment along the supply chain, as the Prime Minister was saying before—in stores, in service industries, in cafes, in the transport sector or even in the ports—then that is important. But the opposition do not think it is important. The great party of business, as they proclaim themselves to be, will not support any measures which support business. They will not support any of them. So what we get in the House is point-scoring. We get nothing but point-scoring because there is no positive alternative.

The two packages that we have put together—the Economic Security Strategy and the Nation Building and Jobs Plan—have been modelled by the Treasury, and those estimates are there.

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