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

I thank the member for Bass for her question because the OECD report delivered overnight has provided powerful new evidence that the stimulus measures in Australia have led the advanced world in their impact. I would like to quote the OECD report. It says:

Even though many countries moved quickly to enact large fiscal stimulus packages, these packages generally have not had a strong effect in cushioning the initial decline in employment caused by the crisis, although Australia is a notable exception.

Australia’s fiscal stimulus package seems to have had a strong effect in cushioning the decline in employment caused by the global economic downturn.

This is a fact denied by every one of those opposite. The reason for this is that the government moved quickly, decisively and powerfully to support jobs in the face of a very sharp contraction across both advanced and developing economies around the world in both the December and the March quarters. The government have supported activity, supported jobs and provided a massive boost to confidence, although we do have some very substantial employment challenges still before us across a range of sectors, including retail.

But the good news is that today we have seen the Sensis business confidence figures. These figures show that business confidence in Australia has risen to its highest level since August 2007. Sensis finds today that small businesses are more optimistic about Australia’s economic direction than they have been in more than a decade—that is, this survey identifies the government’s economic stimulus as a key factor behind the improvement in confidence. This is yet more evidence of what the OECD has found and said in their report issued overnight.

As I was saying earlier, there is broad support in the community for the government’s economic stimulus program. Today, the ACCI, who were looking at the Westpac Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s survey of industrial trends, have commented. This is their conclusion:

Overall, we don’t think it is an environment where there should be any winding back of the stimulus measures given the general fragility of the economy.

That is a very strong case which backs up the assessments of the IMF, the OECD, all of the business sector in this country and the community more generally—everybody except those opposite.

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