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

Last night we put in place a plan, a nation-building budget for recovery, a budget to support the economy in the face of this global recession and to support jobs and Australian businesses in the most serious global economic event to occur in 75 years. That is the thrust of the budget delivered last night and it is something that this country desperately needs in the circumstances in which we find ourselves internationally. There is a lot of support for what the government has had to say about the need for temporary borrowings. The forecasts are there in the budget for everybody to read. It is going to take some time for growth to come back to trend but growth will come back to trend because recessions do end. When they end, there is a lot of spare capacity and that is when economies begin to grow quickly. This is what Standard and Poor’s have had to say about last night’s budget, given all the claims we have had from those opposite about deficit and debt.

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