David Bushby (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on a matter of public interest, that being the concerning ideological direction of the government in its economic management. As we head into 2009, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the fallout from the global financial crisis will pose great challenges to our nation with a vast array of worrying consequences for all Australians. The process will greatly test the government’s economic capacity. With unemployment set to rise, the hard-won Costello and Howard surplus exhausted and the global economy in downturn, left-leaning journalists, academics and politicians have lost no time in placing blame for this situation squarely at the feet of capitalism and globalisation. Indeed, they have been so successful that this message has pervaded the mainstream of Australian discourse. In the midst of the severity of the crisis becoming apparent, our own Prime Minister was seen urging world leaders to reject what he labelled ‘extreme capitalism’ and calling for a new world order of global financial regulation. Our self-professed economic conservative Prime Minister, together with the assistance of other fellow ideologues, has now engaged in composing fruitless reams of ideological diatribe—