Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Wong, the Minister representing the Treasurer. I refer the minister to a Treasury study of the nation building and job stimulus plan, authored by researchers at the Australian National University. That study has made preliminary findings which show that, on the announcement of the government's plan to provide $900 cheques, 'the estimated consumption response was not very large'. Consumption growth increased at the time of the announcement by around one per cent. That is weekly expenditure, so it amounts to about $1.20 spending from the $900 we provided them. Does the government accept the findings of this study financed by your own government which highlights that your stimulus package was a multibillion-dollar fiasco and that is now part of the reason that we find ourselves in excess of $255 billion in gross debt?