Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Senator for his question. This weekend the Treasurer met with his international colleagues at the IMF and the World Bank annual meetings, as well as an emergency meeting of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors. What arose from those meetings and discussions underscored that the global financial crisis has entered a new and dangerous phase, with real consequences for growth, for jobs and therefore for the future. So let us be clear about this: the financial crisis that started in the US and spread to Europe is now impacting on the financial markets and economies of every single country. As a result, the IMF’s World Economic Outlook report, which was released last week, forecasts little or no growth in 2009 for the world’s major developed economies—the US, Europe and Japan—and slower growth in the world’s emerging markets. In this dangerous new phase of the global financial crisis, ministers were determined that only decisive action would do, and the earlier governments act the better. That is the lesson from the Treasurer’s program of global engagements with key global policymakers over the weekend.

We are better placed than other nations, but the need for decisive action is no less urgent. Our hard-won prosperity, both nationally and globally, is at stake. On Sunday the Prime Minister announced three measures to ensure the ongoing strength of our banking sector. The government is introducing an interim guarantee on the deposits and term funding of Australian banking institutions, plus an additional $4 billion investment in residential mortgage-backed securities from non-ADI lenders. Just yesterday—