Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

Let me just make the first point, and that is that, under our government, we are increasing infrastructure investment. The information that is in front of the Governor of the Reserve Bank is the information that was in front of us as we were putting our budget together, and we have put forward $100 billion in infrastructure investment, which is a significant boost from the $75 billion pipeline the year before. I would also refer you to comments that the Governor of the Reserve Bank has made repeatedly now, over the last two months—because you're selectively quoting him. He has made it very clear that his expectation is that economic growth will strengthen, moving forward, on the back of lower interest rates; on the back of our income tax cuts; on the back of continued high infrastructure investment, including, and in particular, from the federal government; on the back of a pick-up in the resources sector; and on the back of a stabilisation in our housing market—in particular, in Sydney and Melbourne.

The proposition that somehow there is a difference in direction between monetary policy and fiscal policy is wrong. Fiscal policy and monetary policy are absolutely heading in the same direction, and we are dealing with serious global economic headwinds.

We have a plan. We're working through that plan. It's a plan that was endorsed by the Australian people at an election only a few months ago. They fundamentally rejected the alternative plan, and even the member for Port Adelaide, who is hardly known as a right-wing free-marketeer, is now saying that the Labor Party may have gone too far with its socialist agenda. Even Mr Butler now is concerned about the fact that Labor might have gone too far with its socialist economic policy agenda—he is very concerned about the fact that the former Treasurer, the now national president of the Labor Party, wants to protect Labor's socialist economic agenda—when the Australian people know that it would have made our economy weaker and it would have made all Australians poorer.