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

I note that there have been a range of calls from the Liberal-National Party to wind back the stimulus. I would firstly point out that the stimulus package has an automatic adjustment, that it peaked in June last year. The IMF in its World economic outlook said last week:

Due to the still-fragile nature of the recovery, fiscal policies need to remain supportive of economic activity in the near term, and the fiscal stimulus planned for 2010 should be implemented fully.

There has been a convert to the Labor Party’s thinking and the IMF’s thinking. This is in direct contradiction to those opposite, who have been calling for the stimulus package to be wound back. Senator Joyce, the new economic sage, I have to say, has seen the light! On TV last night he said:

There’s uncertainties around the globe. We see that, we see China is tightening up on its credit, and we see that America has massive unemployment—

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