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

The opposition—the Liberals—hate it every time there is positive news on the economy because they find that it does not suit their political agenda. It might be consistent with where we want to see the national economy go and where every right-thinking person in the country wants to see our economy go, but it does not suit their political agenda. So when the unemployment data came out last week the Leader of the Opposition was nowhere to be seen, but suddenly ‘Hockey Joe’ appeared and reluctantly took the microphone.

There was positive news also in terms of retail sales, which I referred to before, and housing finance commitments are up. The ABS reported today that the number of owner-occupied housing finance commitments rose by a solid 4.9 per cent in March. That is ABS data that is out today. The number of owner-occupied loans is three per cent higher than it was a year ago. This is the first time that there has been positive through-the-year growth since January 2008. First home buyer activity continued to grow with the proportion of owner-occupied loans for first home buyers increasing to 27.3 per cent, the highest since records began. To quote Westpac, households are responding ‘to extremely low interest rates and generous incentives for first home buyers’. UBS economist Scott Haslem said:

Overall, today’s housing lending data is unequivocally strong.

Similarly, a report again today from the business confidence survey stated that the situation remained unchanged in April.

These elements go towards underpinning one core proposition: a government committed to reducing the impact of the global recession on Australia. If you take a concerted series of measures it will have an effect. Our overall strategy is plain: we are going to continue to support jobs, apprenticeships and small businesses in this economy by investing in the nation-building infrastructure we need for the future.

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