Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

One wonders whether or not the Liberal Party and the National Party were considering the working families that Senator Macdonald refers to when they voted against the government’s economic stimulus package, the package which ensured that this nation stayed out of recession—which ensured that we prevented this country falling into recession. We have not seen in this nation some of what has been seen in comparable economies in terms of the levels of unemployment and in terms of the growth levels or the contraction of those economies. We recognise the importance of the mining industry to Australia. These reforms are about growing and strengthening that industry as well as cutting business taxes for businesses and boosting the retirement savings—