Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens have indicated that we will be taking this package seriously. We have been taking it seriously for the last week, and I can say to the committee that we are still engaged in discussions with the government about changes to it which we believe would improve the outcome, in particular the employment prospects from the delivery of the $42 billion package.

Our greatest concern is with the tax bonus component of the package. That is some several billion dollars of bonus whereby $950 will be directed to all taxpayers below $80,000 and then a lesser bonus to taxpayers who have a taxable income below $100,000. It has no condition. It has no direction. It is not targeted in any specific way. What we are generally saying to the government is that it can target expenditure in this package better without slowing down the money going into the economy.

But let me go back to the setting of this package. We are in an international economic crisis. The government is moving to stimulate the economy through this mechanism. The real question is about the size of the package. We have listened in the committee stages to Treasury as well as to a number of other economists. At the end of the day, you cannot say exactly how big the package should be. It is our asseveration that government and Treasury have a high responsibility to be able to deliver a package which is going to prevent this country going into recession next year. And when you look at the projections that is what the package is about. We are projected to go into a technical recession next year. That has huge ramifications for jobs in this country.

We are dealing in this legislation with the potential loss of hundreds of thousands of Australian jobs. I can indicate to the committee that one of the immediate components we want to see put into this legislation is the removal of the liquid assets test for Australians who are being sacked through no fault of their own—those who are losing their jobs because of the economic crisis—so that they do not have to spend their savings before they are able to get assistance from government. It is a small item but it has a huge impact on those who are losing their jobs and it is a critical one for this committee to be looking at.

So we will potentially have a number of amendments to put to the committee as soon as possible. But let me be honest about this. We are discussing the matter with government; it is happening while the committee is sitting to deliberate on this matter. I do not like that particularly, but we have set a completion time on this of midnight tomorrow night. We will try everything we can to get to this committee as soon as we can any of the changes to the package that we have agreed to, or come up with or come to some sort of cognisance about with the government.