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

The member for Franklin asks a question about the strength of the Australian national economy. The strength of the Australian national economy depends fundamentally on strong economic management in the national interest. But can I also say in terms of the strength of the government’s economic performance that we have been underpinned by a resolute prosecution of the need to stimulate this economy during the global economic crisis.

The national accounts yesterday demonstrated that we had a 0.5 per cent increase in growth in the March quarter. We see commentary also from others in the last 24 hours about the key role of stimulus to keeping the Australian economy afloat. Chris Caton from BT has said:

… that stimulus has kept the economy afloat.

Scott Haslem, the chief economist of UBS, said yesterday:

Traditionally economic growth has been split 80-20 between the private and public sector.

Over the last year it was 60-40 in favour of the public sector as the private sector struggled.

The bottom line is this: public sector stimulus was absolutely fundamental to keeping this economy out of recession. That is the bottom line. Notwithstanding that, many families and small businesses across this country are still doing it tough.

The Liberal and National parties made the very wrong call on stimulus last year. They said that stimulus was not necessary. They said that stimulus should not occur. They said that stimulus has been misdirected.

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