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

In response to the honourable member for Aston’s question: jobs are the explicit focus of what we have done by way of support payments for pensioners, carers and veterans, because consumption is critical for the 1½ million Australians who are employed in the retail sector. He asked for evidence of its impact. Retail trade rose by 3.8 per cent in December 2008. It grew further, by 0.2 per cent, in January. In December, retail trade figures in Canada fell by 5.4 per cent. In the United States they fell by three per cent. In Japan they fell by 1.9 per cent. In Germany they fell by 0.9 per cent. In New Zealand they fell by one per cent. The clear contrast between retail sales in this economy and those in other economies in the December quarter and into January is clear for all to see. What, it seems, is very difficult for the member for Aston to see is that if retails sales are up then that supports employment in the retail sector. I know that is a difficult connection for him to make but, in terms of the 1½ million Australians who are employed in the Australian retail industry, if he were to reflect on the numbers that we saw in the collapse of retail in other economies around the world, he would have seen many more Australians out of work in the retail sector.

The second part of the stimulus package, which he draws to our attention in terms of the impact of the stimulus package on jobs, is in the housing sector. Again, I would draw the honourable member’s attention to the most recent housing figures out in Australia which are as a consequence of the first home owners boost. For the honourable member’s attention, in the scheme’s first 3½ months of operation there were 10,000 applicants for the first home owners boost in New South Wales, 5,800 in Victoria, 6½ thousand in Queensland, 2,800 in Western Australia and 2,400 in South Australia. These figures are the direct result of government policy through the government’s stimulus package—altogether 30,000 homes being built as a result of government policy. So I say to the member for Aston: do 30,000 homes get built with anyone working on them? I know it is a hard question. Can you build 30,000 homes with pixies in the bottom of the garden saying, ‘Poof! There’s a house’—with nobody building it? It takes a lot of people to build a house. It takes brickies, it takes carpenters, it takes sparkies and it takes people in the transport industry to build 30,000 homes.

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