Mark Bishop (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Respecting your guidelines, Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Assistant Treasurer, is it true that the Rudd government’s decisive and comprehensive actions have resulted in significantly increased business confidence, including one of the highest increases in consumer confidence in the last 22 years? While the Rudd government’s early actions have provided assistance to the economy, where the private sector has been unable to do so, can the Assistant Treasurer update the Senate on any threats to this continued upward trend? In particular, can the Assistant Treasurer point to any alternative strategy and can he confirm that one such strategy amounts to doing nothing today—despite the world’s worst global recession in 75 years—but waiting and seeing what might befall our economy? Assistant Treasurer, who is on the public record as having such a strategy? Why is this the worst possible way to respond to current economic events? What risk would the Australian people face if those who believe in this strategy were ever able to implement such a strategy?