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

I thank the member for Flynn for his question, because economic stimulus is playing a critical role in supporting employment and in supporting small business in his electorate and in electorates right around the country. It was delivered precisely at the right time through the nation-building stimulus program and infrastructure investments we put in place and announced one year ago today. I think it is pretty fair to say that the economic performance of Australia over the last 12 months is a tribute to the hard work and to the resilience of the Australian people. It is a tribute to the Australian people and it is a tribute to Australian business. I think the way Australians got behind the stimulus says a lot about the quality of our people and the quality of our businesses, and I think it is important to acknowledge that today, because over the last 12 months Australia has achieved something special. What we managed to do, working together, was to put some confidence back into the economy. The impact of the stimulus was, in fact, over a 12-month period greater than the sum of its parts.

Of course, there will be those in this House who will seek to rewrite history. They will seek to say that it was not needed. They will sit back and ignore the circumstances and the dangers this economy faced over 12 months ago, because over 12 months ago financial systems around the world were in meltdown. Over 12 months ago, share markets were plummeting. Over 12 months ago, global trade and production had fallen off a cliff and millions of jobs were being lost worldwide. Countries were following each other into recession like dominoes. Our economy 12 months ago was on the brink of a recession, having contracted in the December quarter. Of course, we were then facing the bleak prospect of one million Australians being out of work.

Those were the circumstances 12 months ago, but a combination of stimulus and the resilience and hard work of the Australian people and businesses has meant that we have avoided a recession, and in avoiding a recession we have saved tens of thousands of jobs and we have kept open tens of thousands of small businesses, because there has been a pipeline of activity which has underpinned confidence in the economy. It has kept customers going through the doors of businesses and, of course, it has invested in vital areas of infrastructure, in our schools and in our social housing. All of this has been absolutely important to the economic success of Australia and explains why this country is the only major advanced economy not to go into recession. Consider what we have achieved together given that backdrop: 112,000 jobs created over the past year; an unemployment rate of 5.5 per cent, unlike the 10 per cent rate in the US and the other high rates right around Europe; stronger growth than just about every other advanced economy; and 20,000 school projects under construction.

I know everybody on this side of the House supports those projects. They have been vital to local employment in local communities. And, of course, there are 6,600 social homes already under construction, a further 42,000 homes repaired and 3,300 community infrastructure projects across the nation. But of course those opposite do not accept the need for these projects, and they do represent a grave risk to these projects and the jobs that they support, because if they had had their way this country would be in recession right now. It will suit their purposes to pretend that none of this happened. I well remember the debates in this House 12 months ago. I remember the debates when we were in the House at 4 am, putting the case for economic stimulus—putting the case that was denied by most of those opposite. Whatever you thought of the debate and whatever you thought about the propositions being put by those opposite—which were full of political opportunism and a lack of national interest—at least many of them did put their case. But there were two people who did not speak in those debates at 4 am—who did not speak in the whole debate about the economic stimulus program and the infrastructure investments. They were the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer.

We know the Leader of the Opposition says economics is boring. He finds it boring because he simply does not understand it. And what alternative policy have we had from the shadow Treasurer? He has had the full summer to get a costed economic policy together, and they cannot even fund their climate change policy. His only substantial contribution over the summer was to go on a TV program, put on a crown, get a tutu, wrap it round himself and wave a magic wand like some giant Tinkerbelle. That has been the only contribution to the policy debate we have had from their economic team. The Liberals got it wrong 12 months ago and they are getting it wrong again today.

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