Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

I am not going to be lengthy, Senator Abetz, in my response but I think I can make an occasional observation. The observation of the shadow Treasurer, Ms Bishop on Radio National was: ‘We should wait to see how this global recession pans out and how it affects Australia.’ To sit and ‘wait to see’ is quite an extraordinary approach from the shadow Treasurer, Ms Bishop.

This is what I refer to as the ‘shut the blinds, close the curtains’ approach to a very significant and severe world financial and economic crisis. And the best that the shadow Treasurer, Ms Bishop, can come up with is the curtain defence: just do nothing, wait and see, let us see how bad it gets. Clearly, things are going to get worse—how much worse? But the catchcry, and the explanation, is the curtain defence: shut your eyes, do nothing. It is quite an extraordinary approach from the shadow Treasurer, Ms Bishop: wait and see. So we have to wait and see the impacts of slower economic growth, higher unemployment, and the significant social dislocation that will bring. And the answer of the shadow Treasurer, Ms Bishop, is to wait and see how bad it gets before anything is done. It is quite an extraordinary attitude. That attitude led to the Great Depression. I was not alive when the Great Depression was around, fortunately.