Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

On this matter of public importance, when we start talking about budgets, fiscal positions, surpluses, deficits and where the country and the economy are at, we should at least start with facts; we should at least start by making some things clear. The reason we are in the position we find ourselves in today is not a matter of spending but a matter of revenue. One thing is clear and is borne out in the detail, the facts, all the work and all the data, and all the economists agree: what we are talking about today is not a matter of spending; this is a matter of revenues.

Any government and any Treasury, or Treasurer, will understand that your fortunes are based on two things in terms of what you can deliver in an economy, and they are how much you spend and how much you get in. We have been very good in terms of our position and what we have been able to deliver. There has never been a government that has needed to work harder to maintain a strong economy and grow jobs, but that is exactly what we have done. This has been a great challenge and one that the Gillard-Swan government has met. We have delivered. Not since the Great Depression have we seen a devastating global position where the global economy has collapsed and impacted greatly on the Australian economy. Never has there been a higher demand on the government to get it right, to make sure that, when you swing the pendulum to ensure continued growth and jobs, to ensure the future of the Australian economy, you swing the pendulum far enough that you get it right. If you do not swing that pendulum far enough, you miss the opportunity to save jobs, to continue growth, to look after the people you are meant to be looking after—the Australian public, the Australian community. Never before has an Australian government risen to that challenge in more difficult circumstances, but risen to the challenge we have.

After the global financial crisis and a continued downturn in global economies and markets—something that the opposition seem to flick away and say, 'It's been five years, so why haven't the government fixed it all yet?'—it seems that it is a little bit larger than just the Australian economy. When we talk about the global financial crisis, one that impacts directly on all of the OECD countries, we should at least be honest about the facts, honest about what happened, honest about what we needed to do. We were honest about the tough decisions we needed to make to ensure that we continued the growth and to make sure we continued to have people employed. They were the challenges that we met. At the same time the United States—the largest economy in the world which underpins the global economy—basically went into a deep recession. Europe, the OECD countries and every other economy in the world went into recession, but the Australian economy has remained resilient.

See this speech in context