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| Federal Stimulus Package |
| Wednesday, 04 March 2009 | ||||||
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(2) its failure to properly identify and argue on infrastructure requirements for an appropriate share of the Federal Government's stimulus package. The member for Drummoyne gave a key reason for the New South Wales Government being in trouble. She said that our actions today will be measured in the years ahead. They certainly will. We only have to look back to the mini-budget that was delivered just a few weeks ago. Its measures will be condemned for years to come. At exactly the wrong time the Government delivered a budget that raised taxes and charges, and cut infrastructure. Today we have seen another reason for the Government being in so much trouble. It has tried to play silly politics with silly motions. I have news for them. The people of New South Wales are sick of it. They are sick of hollow men at the back of Parliament trying to come up with exciting opportunities to look as if the Government is doing something. They think that if the Government moves these types of motion and makes these types of claims that it can convince people that it is doing something. The people of New South Wales are on to them and they will not put up with the sort of nonsense that we saw in this House today. The member for Drummoyne is right: We are facing some of the most difficult, trying economic circumstances that we are likely to see in our lifetime, in our children's lifetime and in our grandchildren's lifetime. But what do we get from the hollow men? They move these motions to try to connect with the people of New South Wales. They try to convince them that the Opposition does not want our schools upgraded. We do want our schools upgraded because for 13, 14, 15 years—however long it has been; it has been a nightmare—the Government has not delivered the infrastructure. Parts of the Rudd package make sense. We all agree—everyone on this side of the House, everyone around the world—that we need a stimulus package. Economic commentators say we need a stimulus package, but it has to be of the right make-up. Following the announcement of the stimulus package Malcolm Turnbull said:
Opposition members in the Federal Parliament were given just 48 hours. He continued:
At this stage we believe a package of between $15-20 billion would be more affordable and appropriate. The objective of any package must be to protect and create jobs, support small business and strengthen our economy. This package will not achieve this We look at this package and we see little evidence that it will underpin the jobs of Australians. There is no evidence that the Government's $10.4 billion spending package before Christmas created the 75,000 jobs Mr Rudd promised. A stimulus package has total support. We need a stimulus package. But the State Government has not been produced a stimulus package. The Federal stimulus package needs proper scrutiny to ensure that the money is spent in the best way. It must be put in assets and infrastructure to develop the economy and provide jobs. But we have to play silly politics with the hollow men. The people of New South Wales are onto them. Mark this day as the day that the people of New South Wales said they have had enough. I have had enough of the garbage that comes from the Government. This matter is too important to play stupid politics. That is what Government members are doing: minimising this debate to stupid politics. They think they are clever, but they are not. The people of New South Wales are sick of the Government, and today businesses provided a reason. A report of the Sensis Business Index on business confidence noted: It is the first time in the 15-year history of the report that we have seen business confidence at net negative levels in any state or territory or even at the national level. This is alarming not only for New South Wales, but for the rest of Australia There is a long way to go before New South Wales small businesses regain the confidence to employ and invest in capital. The upcoming quarter will be a defining time for New South Wales small businesses.
The main reason that businesses does not have confidence to create jobs in this economy is that they have lost confidence in the State Government. The hollow men should talk to people about creating jobs in this economy rather than spinning funny motions. The Government has to do the hard work that is required to turn around this economy. I ask members to imagine what it would have been like if the economy had got to this stage with the statistics of the 1996 Keating Government. Back in 1996 the Federal Government was $95.8 billion in debt and interest on Government debt was $8.4 billion. During the Howard years debt was reduced to zero. There were 8.3 million Australians in work in 1996. By the time the Coalition left office there were 10.5 million in work. In 1996 there were 197,000 long-term unemployed—66,000 under the Coalition. Listen to responsible economic management. Do not be suckered into press releases and playing stupid politics. Start doing the work that is required to turn this State around. We have not seen a New South Wales Government stimulus package. Whatever the Government says, it is not taking this matter seriously. Today we saw the Government for what it really is. Add to: Write Comment
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