Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Assistant Treasurer, and recently reformed smoker, Senator Sherry. Assistant Treasurer: today being the anniversary of the Rudd government’s decisive action in launching the Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan, how is this strategy, designed to protect Australia from the worst effects of the global recession, progressing? How does the government plan to keep Australia on its recovery course and ahead of the pack as the world emerges from the global recession?

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

I am very pleased to answer both questions—but I will leave for another time the one on cigarettes. Seriously, this is a very important day because it is one year ago today that the Labor government took decisive action and announced the implementation of its Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan, a $42 billion plan to cushion the Australian economy from what was then rapidly emerging as the worst financial and economic crisis the world has seen in some 75 years. It is also the anniversary of the day when the Liberal-National Party gave up and just determined its policy would be to sit back and do nothing about the emerging world economic and financial crisis.

It was on this day last year that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer announced the historic, long-term and targeted plan as a decisive step in the government’s response to the severe global recession. A progress report has been released by the Commonwealth Coordinator-General. It shows almost three-quarters of the infrastructure projects in the stimulus plan are completed or underway. Some 49,179 projects have been approved, 34,850 projects have commenced and 8,339 have been completed. Over half of the $42 billion stimulus package has been injected into the economy through businesses, households, and state, local government and various construction projects.

The report also confirms that, without the stimulus, unemployment in Australia would be some 200,000 greater. We would be well on the way to almost a million unemployed but for the stimulus package—

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unlike you had before!

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

and tens of thousands of businesses would have shut. We know, Senator Abetz, that your policy would have led to a million unemployed. (Time expired)

Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for that answer. I have a supplementary question, Mr President. Is the Assistant Treasurer convinced by opinions against maintaining the stimulus? Is he aware of the warnings of the dangers of withdrawing the stimulus too early and plunging our economy into the recession the Rudd government’s decisive action has managed to avoid?

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

Australia’s unemployment rate is 5.5 per cent. The unemployment rate in Europe and in the United States is approximately 10 per cent—almost double the Australian unemployment rate.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You started with 3.9!

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

And we know, Senator Abetz, that if you had had your way Australia would have an unemployment rate close to 10 per cent.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Sherry, address your comments to the chair.

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

Thank you, Mr President. If we had adopted the Liberal-National Party prescription to do nothing, we would have had close to a million unemployed. Remember the opposition Treasury spokesperson, Mr Hockey, saying, ‘Jobs, jobs, jobs—Australia will have a million unemployed,’ this time last year. That is what he was saying. We took decisive action. You opposed that decisive action. We know the outcome would have been the same outcome that we have seen in Europe and the United States: almost 10 per cent—a million—unemployed. The evidence is very clear. (Time expired)

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time to debate it is at the end of question time.

Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Thank you to Senator Sherry for his answer. Can the Assistant Treasurer inform the Senate, on this important anniversary, of the government’s nation-building and jobs priorities over the next year and beyond?

Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to 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—

(Time expired)