Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law and Minister for Human Services. What role has the government’s stimulus package played in establishing confidence in the Australian economy? Why is it important, in our economic recovery, that the government has in place policy settings that will generate confidence? How have these settings been received?

Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. Questions on the state of the economy these days only come from this side of the House. Perhaps that is because, as the member for Higgins showed yesterday, those opposite regard bad economic news as a political opportunity and encouraging economic news as a great disappointment. I am asked by the member for Dobell about confidence. We know that the stimulus packages of the government have played a very important role in contributing to the solid retail trade figures seen in Australia, but confidence is also vitally important. Confidence underpins spending decisions and investment decisions from the business sector and from households. We know that the opposition regards confidence as very important as well. We know that because last year the member for Wentworth provided the House with some guest lectures on the matter of confidence in the economy via the matters of public importance. With great bravado, day after day, the member for Wentworth told us that confidence was important and that the determinant of confidence on Australia was government policy.

He told us that the world economic situation had very little impact, that the Lehman Brothers collapse had little impact and that the global financial crisis and the credit crunch had very little impact. He told us that the only real determinant of confidence levels in the Australian economy was Rudd government policy. We hear a lot less from the Leader of the Opposition about confidence these days. Perhaps it is because Australia has consistently been amongst the best performers in the OECD in 2009 when it comes to consumer confidence. Perhaps it is because confidence in Australia has been above the total OECD consumer confidence in each month since the announcement of the government’s stimulus packages. In each month since the announcement of the government’s stimulus packages, consumer confidence has exceeded that of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Europe, and on many measures consumer confidence in Australia has returned to precrisis levels, which cannot be said about comparable nations.

Of course, there are a range of factors which have contributed to consumer confidence in Australia, but as the chief economist at Westpac, Mr Bill Evans, said:

The success which the government’s stimulus package has achieved in boosting confidence will be a lesson to other governments including the US which have taken different approaches in their stimulus packages.

Restoring confidence has been an important part of the government’s economic policy and an important result of our stimulus package. We know the Leader of the Opposition showed very bad judgment when he opposed the government’s stimulus package. He showed bad judgment on the stimulus. He continues to show bad judgment today when it comes to confidence. It just goes to show that he cannot be trusted with the nation’s government as we move towards recovery.