Laurie Ferguson (Reid, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services) Share this | Hansard source

The member for McMillan seems slightly off tune. He seems to be making in some cases legitimate criticisms as to delivery. But this is at variance with the thrust of the opposition’s position, which over the last few weeks has been one of endless preoccupation with the level of national debt in this country. The opposition is trying to appeal to ignorance. It is trying to appeal to the simple-minded. One would not think that the United States has seen $1.1 trillion of troubled loans. One would not think that the United States is facing 8.9 per cent unemployment and that 539,000 people there lost their jobs last month. One would not believe that in Europe $1.4 trillion worth of debts are in doubt. Given that figure of 8.9 per cent in the United States, one would not believe that the unemployment levels of European nations in May were 7.1 per cent in the UK, eight per cent in Sweden, 8.3 per cent in Germany and 8.8 per cent in France. One would not believe that currently in this world Chrysler and GM are producing 90 million cars but are able to sell 55 million of them. One would not believe that we have seen a situation, one that at an earlier stage we would not have believed could occur, where in the United States and in the UK essentially we have governments forced to purchase banks because of this very crisis.

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