Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

The IMF noted that Australia was:

… one of the few advanced economies to avoid a recession in recent years, reflecting its strong position at the onset of the crisis and a supportive macro policy response.

I like the way in which the opposition conveniently try to forget about the global financial crisis. It is extraordinary, isn't it? It was some sort of hiccup to them. We should not actually have responded! They would have been happy to see hundreds of thousands of Australians put onto the unemployment queues. There were 200,000 jobs saved as a result of the actions of this government and the work of Australian businesses and Australian workers—something about which the country should be proud.

But I would also make this point about the IMF: the IMF has endorsed not only the government's actions during the global financial crisis but the minerals resource rent tax and also pricing carbon. One would have thought the opposition might want to heed that. (Time expired)