Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Of course, the government welcomes continued debate about the actions the government has taken to keep Australia out of recession. That is why I so much welcome this particular question from the member for North Sydney. He should pose himself some pretty basic questions. Based on the Treasury’s analysis, had we not acted with stimulus, this economy would have gone into recession. Had we not acted with stimulus, 200,000-plus more Australians would be out of work. Had we not acted with stimulus, the impact on Australian small businesses would have been catastrophic, as it has been across the world.

Has the member for North Sydney asked himself this question: why is it that Australia now has the second lowest unemployment rate of all the major advanced economies, at 5.2 per cent? Why is it approximately half that of the United States, and approximately half that of the euro area? Had we generated the same unemployment rate—double-digit unemployment—that we have seen in those parts of the world, do you know how many more Australians would be out of work today? Half a million, Joe—half a million about whom you do not care.

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