Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks to my colleague Senator Collins for that very important question. As we generally know, perhaps other than the Liberal-National Party opposite, the world is confronting a financial and economic crisis, the worst that has been seen in the 75 years since the Great Depression. This has spread into a deep worldwide recession. We saw overnight the release by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, an independent and respected leading international economic forecaster, of an updated report on the state of the global economy. Unfortunately, the report indicates that, of the OECD countries, the average negative decline in economic growth will be just 4.1 per cent, which is one of the worst records of negative growth the world has seen in a very long time. In contrast, it is estimated that the Australian economy will contract by 0.4 per cent. So, in contrast to the average of negative 4.1 per cent amongst OECD countries, Australia is 0.4 per cent. This is the best performance of any economy in the world.

Importantly, the OECD report also refers to government budgets having provided a ‘very important cushion for economic activity in the downturn’. So here we have another respected and independent international economic forecaster acknowledging the important initiatives and interventions of this Labor government to support and cushion the economy in the face of this world economic recession. (Time expired)