Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I am willing to take at face value that Senator Brandis was handed this question, because I am sure he did not write it himself. To suggest that there is a comparison between the New Zealand economy and its exports and resources and the Australian economy and its interrelationship with its resource base beggars belief. Australia has been dragged into this recession last because we on this side of the chamber have had the courage to implement tough decisions. Those opposite suggest that New Zealand’s economy relies on the resource sector. New Zealand did not have a government that just wasted 10 years of a resource boom, frittered it away with cash splashes and did not address the infrastructure needs or the long-term productivity needs of the country. And to come in here and suggest that New Zealand is a comparison point is frankly— (Time expired)