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

Of course the issue is about insulation, but that is part of the stimulus package. I want to directly respond to the senator’s perfectly reasonable question. He has asked about this element of the stimulus package. I am outlining why it was so necessary that the Rudd Labor government acted decisively to deliver this and other stimulus to underpin our economy, to cushion our economy from the worst impacts of the worst of the world recession, a recession we have not seen the size of since the 1920s Great Depression. As I said, we make no apologies for the stimulus package. It has been divided into three essential elements: short, medium and longer term. An important part of the short-term stimulus package has been the one-off payments to those taxpayers who qualified. But the insulation scheme has also been particularly important— (Time expired)