Maxine McKew (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood Education and Child Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak about confidence. Confidence is what gets us up in the morning. It may seem paradoxical in what is undoubtedly a tough year, when economies around the world are contracting and when our own budget figures are forecasting a significant rise in unemployment and a big drop in business investment, but what I am finding over and over in my electorate of Bennelong is that individuals, community groups and indeed small to medium sized businesses are generally more optimistic than the national data would suggest. I note as well that in the Sydney Morning Herald this week its economics editor, Ross Gittins, also alluded to this by saying:

I think we’re doing quite well on limiting the fall in confidence and I wouldn’t be surprised if all the cash bonuses have helped to sustain it.

Now, I think Ross is nobody’s captive and I think he is onto something. When I spoke, just after the budget, to one of my constituents, Maryann Patterson, who is reliant on the disability support pension, she was already planning how she would spend the welcome increase in the single pension rate of $32 a week and the adjusted rise in the utilities allowances. She told me, ‘I’m having my carpets steam-cleaned for the first time in four years’—a small thing for many of us on better incomes, but for Maryann something she had not been able to contemplate before the welcome pension rise.

She then said something else. She said, ‘This is the way you politicians should think about the economy: it’s made up of millions of people just like me making millions of small decisions about how we spend our money.’ Maryann is spot on. There are many more like her across the country quietly relieved that the government understands that at a time when private capital contracts the only responsible course is a large-scale stimulus from the public purse. I am also finding, through regular contact with the many vibrant small businesses in my electorate, that there is plenty of confidence around. I want to thank in particular those businesses who have consistently told me all year they are doing everything they can not to shed valued employees. They are the smart employers; they know that we will weather the downturn and that prosperous times will return.

I also want to praise the particular gustiness of those businesses in my electorate who have opened their doors in this past year. Note to Self is a treasure trove of home wares and special gifts. It is a welcome addition to the Rawson Street retail precinct in Epping. It is designed for the material girl in all of us, so full praise to Jane, Nicola and Linda. I hope those stimulus cheques are finding their way into Note to Self. And across the bridge in Oxford Street, Gina Kampii has brought her cordon bleu expertise to what has to be one of the best patisseries in Sydney. It is called Sweetness, and Gina told me last week that as a result of the budget measure to allow for a 50 per cent tax break for the purchase of new business equipment, her fit-out will be that much more affordable. The point is these new retail outlets are doing brisk business in a downturn. It is a credit to them. They understand their customers and they have priced their products accordingly. That is confidence for you. (Time expired)