Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to his statement on 14 October last year when, declaring himself an economic conservative, he said:

That’s why I’ve always said and why I will always say, with pride, I’m an economic conservative. I believe in budget surpluses …

Prime Minister, when will the government deliver its first budget surplus?

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

I thank very much the honourable member for Curtin for her original question.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I am not sure about the rest of you, but I have plenty of time to wait.

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

The honourable member asked a question about the credentials of an economic conservative. That is a badge I own with pride. It means this. It means adhering to the orthodoxy outlined by the member for Higgins: to support a budget surplus across the economic cycle. That is our orthodoxy. That, at least as articulated by the member for Higgins—the increasingly smirking member for Higgins—was his orthodoxy. We face at present the challenges of the global financial crisis and the challenges of the part of the cycle that we are in. That is the bottom line. I would also draw the attention of the member for Curtin to action taken most recently by the European Commission. Overnight it released a stimulus package of €200 billion. The President of the European Commission, President Barroso, said:

Exceptional times call for exceptional measures. The jobs and well-being of our citizens are at stake …

The Recovery Plan can keep millions in work in the short-term …

The timely, targeted and temporary fiscal stimulus will help put our economy back on track …

The EU goes on to say:

If we do not act now, we risk a vicious recessionary cycle of falling purchasing power and tax revenues, rising unemployment and ever wider budget deficits.

That is from the EU. The United Kingdom has just introduced a £20 billion stimulus package aimed at a concerted and comprehensive plan. In the United States, under the current Bush administration, fiscal stimulus of US$168 billion will lead to a projected budget deficit of 4.6 per cent of GDP in 2009. In Japan a fiscal stimulus package of ¥7 trillion in August and October will result in a projected forecast deficit of 3.8 per cent of GDP.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The question was: when will this government deliver its first budget surplus?

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will respond to the question.

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

Mr Speaker, the honourable member for Curtin spoke at length about the credentials of being an appropriate economic conservative. I am responding entirely within that framework. Therefore, I would draw her attention to the conservative government of Germany, the conservative government of Japan and the conservative government of the United States—running fiscal deficits of minus 4.6 per cent of GDP and minus 3.8 per cent of GDP. Germany, on the back of its most recent stimulus package, is running a deficit of 0.8 per cent of GDP. I would also draw the attention of the honourable member for Curtin to the good old bank that the Leader of the Opposition used to work for. The former merchant bank Goldman Sachs said as follows:

The combination of aggressive central bank easing and judicious fiscal stimulus will leave Australia better placed than its global peers in avoiding a deep and prolonged recession.

Can I say to the member for Curtin, who is renowned for her originality in this place, that the challenge for responsible leadership—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Those on my right will come to order.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I would ask the Prime Minister to drop his natural nastiness and to answer a question—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for North Sydney will resume his seat.

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

The challenge in implementing the government’s orthodoxy, which is to maintain a budget surplus across the economic cycle—something we said before the election campaign, during the election campaign, subsequent to the election campaign—applies to the immediate challenges we face in the current state of the economic cycle. That is something that the member for Higgins, in his more honest of private reflections, would agree with. Therefore, we have a strategy for dealing with the challenges presented by the global financial crisis. It is called economic stimulus to support families and jobs. I would reiterate what the Treasurer said just a moment ago: when it comes to the challenge of supporting families and jobs in the global financial crisis, at the end of the day the Liberal Party never put jobs first. They did not put jobs first with Work Choices. When it comes to the choices we face in dealing with the global financial crisis, they put jobs last as well. We stand by an economic stimulus strategy. It is the right thing for the nation, the right thing for the economy and the right thing for jobs.