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

I am quite disappointed in that question from the Leader of the Opposition. Firstly, the implication in the question is completely inaccurate; we have come to expect that. But what we have seen in the last 24 hours, particularly from the shadow Treasurer, is that the bipartisan support for the IMF that has spanned conservative and Labor governments over something like 60 years has now been broken. How low will they go? They should know, because this was the practice when they were in government, that any loans made to the IMF are repaid with interest. That was the situation under conservative governments and it is the situation under this government.

Secondly, and this is more important, the government is not proposing to put any money into a European rescue fund. That is just false—completely false. What we have seen is a xenophobic approach, particularly in the last 24 hours, by the shadow Treasurer, who has been out there blowing the dog whistle that somehow Australia was going to be propping up Greece. Well, we are not. But what we are going to proudly do is meet our commitments to the IMF, as governments of both political persuasions have done for over 60 years.

There is a very serious situation in the global economy at the moment. Whilst our fundamentals are strong, Australia is not immune from the fallout of these events in Europe and also in the United States. It is a difficult situation when two of the big global groupings in the economy are misfiring. That does have consequences for Australia. What we have said and what other G20 finance ministers have said—and I am sure other G20 leaders are saying it as we meet today—is that the world will meet its obligations through the IMF to ensure that the IMF has the capacity in the future to deal with greater global volatility which flows from Europe.

Around the world, conservative governments favour that approach, governments of our persuasion favour that approach and governments of the persuasion of those opposite have favoured that approach: giving the IMF the resources that it needs. The IMF does not have the capacity to contribute directly to any European fund, but what I have said and what the Prime Minister has said is that the IMF must be properly resourced for the future because we are entering into a period of great volatility which brings threats to the global economy and Australia is not immune from those threats. We will pay our fair share through the IMF, as we have always done, but that will be by way of loans, which are repaid with interest.

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