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

I will get to debt in a moment—and Australia has a 5 in front of its unemployment rate. We have half the level of unemployment of most of the advanced European economies and the United States.

Let me move to the debt issue. The debt arises from two consequences. One: the world recession reduced Australia's revenue. We lost over $120 billion in revenue as a consequence of the world recession. So revenue dropped significantly as a result of the world recession. And, yes, we did spend money, and in spending money we kept this economy out of recession, and that is recognised by almost every leading independent economic authority in the world, from the World Bank to the IMF to Australian economists. The decisive action we took to keep this economy out of recession is recognised by almost everyone but the Liberal-National Party opposition, who, as soon as we moved into government, developed the habit of saying no, no, no. That is all you get from this Liberal opposition: no, no, no.

I repeat: in the middle of 2008, it was the current Leader of the Opposition, Mr Abbott, who said: 'If the rest of the world goes into recession, you won't keep Australia out of it. Don't spend any money. Don't have a stimulus package.' That is what Mr Abbott predicted. Mr Hockey predicted a million unemployed. He shifted his political lines very quickly to focus on what he thought would be a million unemployed. They were wrong: Mr Hockey was wrong and Mr Abbott was wrong. This Labor government, of which I am proud, kept Australia out of recession. That is why we are in such a strong position. (Time expired)