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

It has been, I think, more than 100 days since we have had a question on jobs. I notice that, even in this breaking of Joe’s duck for the last several weeks, there is still no question on jobs. Can I say in response to the honourable member’s question that what is appropriate and what is conservative in dealing with a global economic crisis is this: for the government to expand its own role and the economy when the private sector is in retreat and for the government to withdraw its activity once the private sector recovers. That is why the honourable member will be familiar with the fact that the government’s national stimulus strategy was purposely designed to peak when the economy was at its weakest and then tail off. In fact, I am advised that the government’s stimulus strategy, and the payments associated with it, peaked in the second quarter of 2009. That is because we are through the initial set of payments to pensioners, carers and low-income families. Secondly, we are now in the process of the medium-term infrastructure build—Building the Education Revolution, the insulation package for people’s houses as well as the public housing investment—before we move into stage 3, which is the longer term infrastructure build. That is how it is designed—to deal with weaknesses in the economy now and build the infrastructure we need for the long term. If the honourable member is asking for the definition of what constitutes an economically conservative response to what has been the grossest assault on the Australian economy by the global economy in 75 years—

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