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

I was saying that all the opposition demonstrate to all and sundry when they scoff and say, 'Oh, the global financial crisis!' is that the Liberal Party have become the party of economic irrationality. I would expect that from the National Party. I would expect that from Senator Joyce. But this is the party of Peter Costello. This is the party that used to pride itself that it understood matters economic coming into the chamber and asking a question about the last years of our economy's development and trying to completely rub out the impact on our economy and on the global economy of the largest downturn since the Great Depression. Senator Cormann ought to go to the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain or Greece and ask them whether they think they should look at the last five years of their economic history without regard to the global financial crisis. It is the most extraordinarily absurd economic proposition. If the coalition's policy now is that fiscal policy should never respond to the macroeconomic environment, they had better tell Mr Hockey that because it is a ridiculous proposition and contrary to the way in which he has most recently articulated their policy—in fact, it was as recently as this week—in a speech— (Time expired)