Jim Turnour (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the House on the decisive action the government has taken over the past year to strengthen our economy during the global financial crisis?

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

I thank the member for Leichhardt for his question. It has been a year of hard yards as we deal with the greatest ever crisis experienced in a market economy and we know that Australians are concerned by the daily bombardment of economic news from overseas. I do not think that anybody could have predicted 12 months ago the events of the last 12 months, with the failure of something like 30 banks around the world and the recession in Europe and Japan or the fact that the IMF might be predicting recession in the United Kingdom and in the United States.

Our sound economy has not been immune from all these events, but there are strong fundamentals and, of course, government action has helped us withstand the fallout. The government has been diligently and responsibly preparing our economy for the worst that the world can throw at us. That is why at budget time we built a strong surplus as a buffer against international uncertainty. It is a surplus which has given the government the flexibility to respond to changed international conditions and the flexibility to deliver a $10.4 billion economic security strategy. It is a very important strategy which will add between half and one per cent to GDP and create up to 75,000 jobs. It is welcomed on this side of the House; it is opposed by those on that side of the House. They said there would be bipartisan support and then they turned around and opposed every aspect of it. And, of course, not only have we been acting but the Reserve Bank has been acting.

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition opposed the payments to families on the radio the other day. She opposed the payments to families. But the Reserve Bank has been active as well, responding with cuts to interest rates of 200 basis points in recent months. This means that fiscal policy and monetary policy are working in tandem. Those opposite do not have any alternative policy solutions—30 minutes from the Leader of the Opposition at the Press Club today and not one costed positive policy; none at all. We are doing the hard yards to protect Australians. We understand the nature of the problem. Those opposite do not. We will continue to strengthen our economy, to build our strength in the face of these international circumstances, to look after families, to look after pensioners and to look after Australian businesses.

Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors, Tourism and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Acting Prime Minister. Will the government support the opposition’s plans to assist Australia’s 2.4 million small businesses to deal with the global financial crisis by doubling from 15 to 30 per cent the allowed margin of error for instalment payments to the Australian Taxation Office?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. The government obviously is concerned about the impact of the global financial crisis on small businesses. In moving decisively with our economic security statement and injecting $10.4 billion into the economy, one of the things that was on our minds was support for small business. Engaging in that kind of fiscal stimulus, ensuring that there was money in the hands of households, has an effect for small business, and we wanted to make sure that small business benefited from that economic security statement as well. On other matters involving small business, the government has invested in Enterprise Connect centres to assist small business. We believe that that is important. We also believe that it is important to make it easier for small business to engage in their GST tax accounting. This is a matter that my colleague the Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy has been working on. So our policies and plans here are clear. We want to support small businesses. We understand that they are a backbone of the Australian economy, and consequently they have been at the forefront of our thinking as we have responded to the global financial crisis.