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

Thank you for that question. As this government has said in being honest and straightforward with the Australian public, Australia is being buffeted by international financial circumstances. As we have said consistently, we are better placed than almost all other countries to cope with this. The last national accounts figures speak for themselves. The IMF forecasts consistently come with the proviso—the same as the Reserve Bank, the Treasury and this government, because we are being honest and straightforward about this—that all the risks are on the downside, despite those opposite living in some fantasyland for the last 12 months, dismissing the size and scale of the economic crisis, dismissing the need for swift action, with even their former Treasurer saying we should wait; we should sit on our hands to see what we should do. It is no wonder that that former Treasurer has the word ‘former’ in front of his former title, because this was a completely irresponsible position to take. Those opposite have sought to play cheap politics when what this country has needed is swift and decisive action. In November, we put forward the ESS, designed specifically to protect Australian families, and as those figures—