Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is also to the Prime Minister. I refer him to his statement at the National Press Club on 21 November last year in which he said:

I pride myself on being an economic conservative, committed to budget surpluses. This forms the economic bedrock of my plan for the nation’s future.

Given that after only 12 months in office the government is now planning budget deficits for the future, does the Prime Minister accept that in fact it is debt and deficits that are the economic bedrocks of Labor governments?

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

The honourable member’s question underlines the fact that I outlined in my response to an earlier question. Their interest—in fact, their relish—is in the prospect of rising unemployment in Australia. That underpins the political strategy of those opposite. They spot the global financial crisis coming, see it becoming a real crisis for the global economy, look at the projected wash-on effects for the Australian economy in 2009, including pressures on employment, and, rather than engage in a debate about solutions, spot the opportunity to make the most politically out of the prospect of rising unemployment. That, as the honourable member knows, underpins the political strategy of the question that he just asked. He knows that. That is why he asked it. That is what underpins the question he has just asked. This is about politics, not about a real economic solution.

We face the worst global financial crisis in three-quarters of a century. We have a strategy for dealing with it which is based on fiscal stimulus. We have announced a $10.4 billion fiscal stimulus strategy. We have announced a long-term $6.2 billion investment in the automobile industry. We have announced, as the Leader of the National Party may be interested to hear, a modest stimulus package to assist local governments across the country—a $300 million package. We will presently put a proposal to the states for in excess of $11 billion to support services in health and education for the future. These are the elements of our strategy; these are the elements of our stimulus approach; this is what we are doing about the reality which the global financial crisis has created and the threat which therefore bears down for families, for growth and for jobs. That is our strategy.

The question for those opposite is: what is theirs? Their strategy is this: rank political opportunism. Their strategy never gets past political first base. It is all about politics, politics and politics and how to score political points out of other people’s pain. The government has a strategy for the future. I again say to those opposite that it is time that they join the national project of finding solutions rather than simply playing politics every step of the way.