Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Shortland for her question because more than 55,000 direct payments were made to residents in Shortland, and today’s national accounts show that the first stage of the government’s economic stimulus plan—the cash payments—have certainly worked to cushion Australia from the global recession. Treasury figures released today do confirm that, without these payments to households, Australian growth would have been negative. Australian pensioners and Australian families have certainly been critical to this outcome, and I would like to say on behalf of the government that we thank them for playing their part. It has been Australian families and Australian pensioners who have helped buffer our economy in this very difficult time.

In December last year, the Australian government provided cash payments to pensioners, to carers, to people with disability, to veterans and, of course, to families. A very large portion of these payments were spent. They certainly helped to support consumer demand through the first few months of this year. Again in February, the government announced further economic stimulus measures and these included additional payments for cash-strapped, low- and middle-income families and other households. This was to immediately help fill in the emerging hole in private demand being caused by the worsening global recession. As a result, in March this year millions of Australians began receiving their payments from Centrelink. These totalled $4.5 billion and included a $950 back-to-school bonus, a $900 single income family bonus, a $950 farmers bonus and a $950 training and learning bonus. All of these payments started to be delivered before the first tax bonuses began in April. It is the case that both the December and the February payments have been important in supporting local businesses in communities right around the country in these first months of 2009. As we have heard from the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, growth in household spending in the March quarter was 0.6 per cent. By contrast, we have seen that the average G7 consumption growth in the March quarter was zero.

At the time that we announced the Nation Building and Jobs Plan we saw an Access Economics report back in March, saying about the bonuses:

These measures will lift the spending power of households through 2009, providing important support for retailers against the tide of rising unemployment and consumer caution.

This is why the stimulus payments were so widely welcomed—except, of course, by those opposite. All of us on this side of the House remember the excruciating backflipping we saw as the Leader of the Opposition tried to figure out what he thought about the December payments, and then his opposition to the payments that were made in February. If the opposition had their way, millions of Australian families would not have received their payments in February and March. If he had his way, the first stage of the government’s economic stimulus plan would not have been able to get on and do the job that it has done. All we see from those opposite is desperate opportunism, more evidence that the opposition has no economic plan.

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