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

The government believes—and, I think more importantly, a raft of independent experts believe—Australia’s stronger than expected economic performance is the result of community resilience, the success of the stimulus package in Australia, opposed by those opposite, and the combined effects of governments and central banks around the world. The MYEFO refers on several occasions to the success of the stimulus measures introduced by the Rudd government and the Reserve Bank. This is the job-saving and confidence-boosting recession-busting stimulus which the Liberal and National parties opposed. They opposed this stimulus. The consequence of the Liberal and National parties’ policy approach would have been unemployment levels approaching that of the United States—in other words, more than 10 per cent and one million unemployed. That was the approach of the irresponsible and divided Liberal and National parties. (Time expired)