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

Mr Speaker, the point of order from the Leader of the Opposition was about speaking positively about the Australian economy. Therefore, it is a question of growth, it is a question about unemployment and it is a question about net debt relative to the rest of the other economies around the world. It is also a question in terms of government deficit relative to the other major advanced economies and to the fact that this economy, virtually uniquely across the OECD, has managed thus far to avoid a recession. I would have thought that, in terms of speaking positively about the Australian economy, this is where the nation—consumers across the nation, businesses across the nation—want us to be, reflected by the two confidence indicators recently indicating that Australians want us as a government, as a nation and as a parliament to be as one, pull together and push the Australian economy up, lifting it up out of global recession.

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