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

The shadow Treasurer used to be the minister for pay cuts in his former life, and he now comes in here as the shadow Treasurer—the shadow Treasurer for job cuts. That explains the very clear difference between both sides of the House. At the height of a global recession, jobs are the No. 1 priority of the government and the Australian community. We have put in place an economic stimulus which is supported by all sides of Australian politics, by the business community and by most of the major economists in the community. It is supported by just about everyone except the Liberal and National parties in this House. Economic stimulus is supported globally by those on the left and the right of politics. All are saying that economic stimulus is the right course of action in these circumstances to protect our community. We put that in place. We put it in place to the point where the economy did not go backwards over the past year. Economic stimulus in this country meant that we grew by 0.6 per cent in the last year. If it had not have been for that economic stimulus, we would have gone backwards by 1.3 per cent.

If those opposite had their way, there would be tens of thousands of Australians unemployed and there would be businesses closing their doors. The economic stimulus has meant that customers have been going through the doors of business, that the construction sector and the retail sector have been cushioned from the impact of this global recession and that confidence has become much stronger here than anywhere else in the world. It is true: the stimulus is greater than the sum of its parts. What the stimulus has added up to is confidence in this country—unlike confidence elsewhere in the advanced world. That is one of the reasons that we have produced one of the best results in the advanced world.

Those on the other side of the House have been preoccupied with playing politics. They sat in this House at 4 am and 5 am back in February and voted against every element of the Nation Building and Jobs Plan. And, in so doing, they demonstrated that they put their jobs before the jobs of Australian families—before the breadwinners in Australian families—and before the national interest of the Australian economy. What we have seen in the question today from the shadow Treasurer is yet another example of the brutal politics being played by those opposite. They want to resurrect another John Howard scare campaign on interest rates and they want to make false connections between the pressures on rates.

They know very well that interest rates in this community are at emergency levels. They are at emergency levels because we have had a big problem in the national economy, and they will be adjusted independently by the Reserve Bank as the stimulus unwinds and as they move forward when global growth returns. Those opposite want to somehow say that that will be a product of our stimulus. Well, it is not. This is just another Liberal Party scare campaign—like the scare campaign we had from them many years ago.

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