Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Conroy tells me he is going to, so maybe I will move to some other areas of my contribution to save the Senate time. Seriously, Senator Abetz, if your earlier contribution reflects the opposition’s case for the extraordinarily high-risk position you have taken here, then I suspect you face opposition for a very long time. Economic illiteracy is about the best description, as one of my colleagues put it to me.

Let us go back to the opposition position on the package, just to deal with some more facts rather than myth. The Liberal Party reject every element of this package. It is not just that Mr Turnbull said, ‘We’re going to vote against it in the House and in the Senate.’ They reject every element of this package. They reject the size. The Liberals’ view is that the package is too large. They were unwilling to listen to the advice from Treasury. They want a package half the size, unless you accept their earlier rhetoric of ‘letting the market rip’ or, indeed, Julie Bishop’s view, which was, ‘Let’s wait and see.’ Even if we present the best-case scenario, they want a package half the size. Let me quote Mr Turnbull from 4 February:

Our judgement is that a more appropriate level of stimulus is in the order of 1½ to two per cent of GDP, or between $15 billion and $20 billion.

That is their view, even though the Treasury advice was that a smaller package would not do the job. Let us look at Dr Henry’s comments. He said that with a smaller package:

… there would be some point at which GDP growth in 2009-10 in particular might well have been negative.

I could go on about the other elements of the package, the opposition’s objection to tax bonuses, their misrepresentation of international evidence, their misrepresentation of the situation in relation to schools, their lack of comprehension about the small business element of the package and their misunderstanding of what the insulation proposals will achieve, but I am conscious of allowing the Senate to consider these issues in the light of other contributions. I despair at the misrepresentation of the situation by the opposition. I encourage Senator Xenophon to pick up that bucket. Yes, the ship will sink unless we do something. This is your description of the situation we confront. Do not just believe we are going to sink anyway. Pick up that bucket and start bailing.

Question agreed to.

Bills read a second time.