Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer please update the House on recent developments in the Irish economy and any implications for Australia?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Page asked a question which was in order. The Deputy Prime Minister has got the call. He will now respond to the question, and the House will remain silent.

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

I do thank the member for Page for that very important question, because events in recent days in Ireland do tell us that the world is still living with the impacts of the global financial crisis. After a period of calm, what we do see is renewed volatility in Europe. This is driven by concerns about the Irish banking sector, which continues to feel the impacts of the global financial crisis. The Irish government is dealing with this. It has now asked for assistance from the European Union, and there is a formal process of negotiation going on. Australia does welcome these assistance efforts from the European Union and it does welcome the determination of the Irish government to deal with these questions, because these events absolutely underscore how patchy the global economic recovery is and they particularly underscore how different the position is in this country compared to so many other developed economies around the world.

The position here could not have been more different. One of the reasons it is more different in Australia is that the Australian government took decisive action, which was opposed by those across the aisle. If they would have had their way, Australia would have been in recession. But the Labor government got the big economic call right for this country—absolutely right. This has been confirmed by the OECD in their report of last week. I know those opposite do not like to hear it because it underscores the fact that, they are so weak when it comes to the economy, they have no alternative and that, if they would have had their way, Australia would have been in recession. This is what the OECD had to say: ‘The stimulus package was among the most effective in the OECD.’

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

They think this is funny because they do not understand the scale of the challenge that Australia faced in the past two years and they do not understand the future. Job recovery and job creation in this economy has been strong—unemployment at 5.4 per cent compared to 13.6 per cent in Ireland. The 650,000 jobs created in Australia in the past year demonstrate the strength of the Australian economy. There is also the fact that we are bringing our budget back to surplus in three years. The Australian economy is performing strongly, and it is performing strongly because of the strong economic management of the Gillard Labor government. It is the strong economic management of this government. We are in a stronger position than just about any other developed economy in the world. That is not accepted by those opposite, but we cannot be complacent about the future. We know this economy requires sound economic management to bring the budget back to surplus, unlike those opposite who had an $11 billion hole in their net savings in the campaign. We are committed to strong economic management. (Time expired)