Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline for the House the conclusions of today’s International Monetary Fund assessment of Australia’s economy and financial institutions?

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

I thank the member for Solomon for his question. We did receive the IMF report early this morning. It is a report card on the resilience of the Australian economy—a good report card on the government’s plans for it. Like the government, the IMF is saying that we can expect some slowing as a result of the fallout from the global financial crisis. But the report also adds weight to the government’s view that, whilst we are not immune from global difficulties, we are certainly well placed to withstand the fallout. If I could just quote from the IMF report, this is what the IMF executive directors have said about Australia’s strength through responsible economic management:

Looking ahead, Directors considered that the sound macroeconomic framework should permit Australia to weather the global downturn and to contain inflationary pressures.

The IMF report also went on to give the government’s reform effort a very, very big tick. The report strongly commends the government’s budget—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

No, it does not. Unfortunately for those opposite, it does no such thing. Until they put up their hands over there for inflation at 16-year highs, they cannot claim any of the credit. They can claim no credit whatsoever. This is what the IMF had to say on the economic settings of the May budget:

Saving some of the revenue from the commodity price boom in three new funds will take pressure off monetary policy in the near term and enable increased … investment over the medium term.

That is what they had to say about our investment funds. The IMF go to great lengths to point out that capacity constraints in the Australian economy have been responsible for inflationary pressures and, because they were left unattended for so long by those opposite, the result was inflationary pressures in the economy. That is why the IMF have given the government a very big tick for attending to those inflationary pressures and for expanding the productivity capacity of the Australian economy. They went on to say this about the agenda:

… if implemented fully, the broad reform agenda should enhance the flexibility of the economy and lift productivity and labour force participation.

They also went on to talk about the quality of Australia’s banking and regulatory systems, and I quote again:

The banking sector is sound with stable profits, high capitalization, and few nonperforming loans.

On this side of the House we do welcome the IMF’s assessment, and we cannot understand why it is not welcomed by those opposite. Those opposite have been walking around talking about bipartisanship. You would have thought that they would be supporting a responsible surplus if they wanted to be bipartisan. They would not be up in the Senate vandalising the surplus; they would be getting behind the government and they would be getting behind our surplus and they would be voting for it in the Senate. So, on one hand, the phoneys over there want to argue that they are responsible and that they want to be bipartisan and, on the other hand, they vandalise a surplus which is absolutely essential for Australia at a time of global uncertainty.

We certainly do welcome this report, its support for our long-term agenda, its support for our reform agenda in education, infrastructure, business deregulation, climate change and tax. This government is doing everything it possibly can to keep striking a responsible balance between relief for families, support for pensioners and the long-term investment future of this country. There is only one thing that stands in the way of that: the vandalism of the Liberal and National parties up there in the Senate. It is about time we had some responsible behaviour from those opposite. Until they behave responsibly, all of their protestations about standing for responsible management are as phoney as their support for pensioners.