Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wills for his question. Overnight, we have seen more evidence of the response of international economic organisations to Australia’s economic management over the last 18 months. The OECD has given further evidence that the stimulus measures put in place by the Rudd government have worked to cushion the impacts of the global recession. The OECD also points out that rising unemployment will continue to be a serious problem in economies, including Australia’s. To keep the unemployment rate steady we need to create around 20,000 jobs a month, which is a serious challenge in this international environment. This is a challenge that requires stimulus to remain in place—a fact established and supported internationally. Over the last fortnight we have heard Dominique Strauss-Kahn and senior officials from the White House and the G20 endorse the need to keep stimulus in place. Over the course of the last 48 hours we have heard the Prime Minister of Great Britain endorse the need to keep stimulus in place. In a speech to the Trades Union Congress in the United Kingdom he stressed ‘the need to implement fiscal stimulus packages in full without stopping them prematurely’. The British Prime Minister also laid out the need to keep stimulus in place by saying:

And we still have big choices to make. The choice of whether we continue to act to help families and businesses or whether we listen to the Tories and withdraw support from families and businesses, cut public services now, and refuse to invest in Britain’s future.

Anyone who would characterise that speech as anything other than a call to keep stimulus in place is engaging in false and misleading conduct.

I am asked about what impediments there are to coordinated action on fiscal stimulus. One of the things in place is those opposite who make things up in their argument against coordinated fiscal stimulus. This has been a shocker of a fortnight for the economic credibility of the Leader of the Opposition and his colleagues. Last week we had the Robert doctrine, which was to say that Australia is the only nation in the world not withdrawing stimulus. Simply untrue. That was followed by the Hockey hypothesis, which was to say, ‘Maybe that’s not right but it’s all a left-wing conspiracy.’ Then we had the shadow Treasurer saying that keeping interest rates low was more important than supporting jobs. Today we have seen the Leader of the Opposition distance himself from his own shadow Treasurer on that particular item. Now the G20 conspiracy has been replaced by the phantom Gordon Brown speech from the shadow Treasurer. Not content with dreaming up conspiracies, the shadow Treasurer is now drafting phantom speeches.

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