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

The government embraced the Economic Security Strategy last October; payments flowed through in December with the object of supporting consumption, in particular for the retail sector. This was at a time when retail sales across the Western world went through the floor. If you look, however, at what happened in the December quarter last year, data produced by the ABS show that retail trade rose by 3.8 per cent. I would ask honourable members to reflect on where retail sales around the world went in the December quarter last year. Furthermore, all industries had increased sales in December 2008—food retailing, 1.4; department stores, plus 8.3; clothing and soft-good retailing up 5.8; household-good retailing up 9.9; and other retailing, 2.6. Where it is actually apposite is data that I have referred to in this House before from Westfield, which, as you know, is represented both in Australia and in the United States. The Westfield data showed that spending in December 2008 was up 2.5 per cent from the previous year, in contrast with their overseas sales, which were down 14 per cent in the United States.

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