Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

We hear ‘thank the commodities’ from a member of the Liberal Party. That has got to go in the Hansard! The former Treasurer, the member for Higgins, raked in gold bars as the commodity boom raced around the country—his biggest problem was that he had to spend his way out of a boom—and the genius from Bowman says, ‘Thank the commodities’! We do not have a commodity boom in this country anymore. What we do have is a global financial crisis, which this government is dealing with. If you do not think it is important to respond on behalf of the Australian people and cushion the blow then you would say, ‘The stimulus packages are not necessary, the deficit level is unnecessary and the debt level is unnecessary.’ That is clearly the approach of those honourable members opposite. They are saying it is not necessary. The member for Bowman, in his usual genius way, has just confirmed that. He said this is not necessary. That is because the opposition do not care about the human impact of the global financial crisis.

If you do not care what every credible economic commentator in the country thinks, if you do not care what every credible economic think tank in the world thinks, then you would say debt and deficit are not necessary. If you do not care what the IMF think, if you do not care that the IMF have said of Australia that ‘the shift into deficit was justified in current circumstances’—

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