Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is right, Senator Abetz. I am talking about the first stimulus package. That was the Leader of the Opposition’s position. Let us talk about what the first stimulus package has achieved. Quite frankly, it has achieved a great deal. Let us talk about sales in the retail sector. Official figures were released showing a 3.8 per cent increase for the month of November—the biggest percentage rise in retail since the introduction of the GST in August 2000. Let us talk about first home ownership and the housing industry. Housing finance data from the ABS for November showed that the number of first home buyers increased by 17.8 per cent. The Real Estate Institute of Australia said:

Yes, we are starting to see a lot of activity in the first home buyers market and I think we’ll see a lot more of that as we go forward.

Today, Senators, I would like to raise new ABS figures released today which go to the extent of the first stimulus. The ABS figures show a surge in new housing finance for the month of December. First home buyer grants have absolutely stimulated the housing market. First home buyers are the real winners out of this. The first home buyer share of housing finance hit a six-year high in December as the stimulus kicked in. They are fantastic results. So the cash splash that the Leader of the Opposition and senators on the other side of the chamber talk about is doing its job.

This $42 billion package has a strategy behind it. If senators on the other side of the chamber had been listening to the Treasury officials during the Senate inquiry they would understand it. In the short term, the cash bonus payments are about getting money into the economy straightaway, to bolster aggregate demand, helping confidence in the marketplace. This injection takes place now, then the second part of the strategy comes to the fore—infrastructure. That is when you will start seeing projects taking off. These projects have been put together with this in mind. These are not huge projects that are going to cost billions and billions of dollars and take years to put together. These are projects that can be put out into the system quickly, punched out by tradesmen, by builders, by suppliers. This is the strategy behind it, to get our tradesmen and tradeswomen working, to get our suppliers providing, to get our transport workers using their vehicles to provide for housing. This is what it is about: a stimulus for the economy. This is what we stand for. On the other side the attitude is: ‘Wait and see. Let’s wait and see how bad it gets.’ In the end, that will mean a loss of jobs and a loss of production.