Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors, Tourism and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I am certainly pleased to rise on behalf of the opposition to speak about the government’s Economic Security Strategy or so-called response to the global financial crisis. These are exceptional times that we live in. There is no doubt about it. We have heard now for some months that the world has not faced the kind of global financial crisis that we currently face previously in our lifetimes. There are some who make the connection that this global financial crisis is akin to the Great Depression that was seen in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

The most remarkable aspect that I would like to comment on in response to this package that has been put forward by the government is the radical change in the language of the government. When Kevin Rudd and the Labor Party were first elected in this country, we heard from them on many different occasions the statement that the buck would stop with the Prime Minister, that he was an economic conservative and that Labor had learned its lesson from their bungling of the Australian economy in so many instances in the past.

Labor promised to basically be the Liberal Party in government but with a nice soft underbelly. That is effectively what Kevin Rudd and the Labor Party said to the Australian people. What do we actually know now? What do we know as the circumstances—

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