Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

We did have to borrow responsibly to support the economy. Those opposite will not acknowledge that and what they have to nominate is the increased taxes or the services cuts they would have put in place to replace the loss of $210 billion. This goes to the very core of their economic credibility. It is the case that we have borrowed responsibly for economic stimulus, and they will never understand that our stimulus has been carefully designed to withdraw from the economy as the private sector recovers. That is how it is designed; that is how it is constructed. It means doing all the heavy lifting that those opposite have opposed every inch of the way when private demand was at its lowest. Withdrawing it is just common sense as private demand returns. So they have it so wrong on stimulus. All of this hysteria and all of their scare campaigns are about camouflaging the fact that they have not got a clue what is going on—absolutely clueless.

They said the stimulus would not work; now they are saying it has worked too well. They said it would not create a single job; now they are saying it is creating too many. The Leader of the Opposition said that the stimulus was not going to create a single job. Has there ever been a bigger own goal in public policy in the last 50 years than what the Leader of the Opposition said at the Press Club when he said stimulus would not create a single job? If anything demonstrates how clueless they are, if anything demonstrates the lack of judgment of the modern Liberal Party, it was that statement at the Press Club just prior to the budget this year. All the way through this term they have shirked the hard work. We know the job is not finished and, in the face of this dirty scare campaign which has no basis in fact, we are going to defend the national interest and support Australian jobs.

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