Page 524 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 10 February 2009
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The works proposed through the nation building and jobs plan will be delivered locally by a range of trades—builders, plumbers, roofers, painters, electricians, plasterers and the like—that is, our family, our friends and our neighbours working in the trades are being given more security for their immediate future, with a better degree of certainty. The federal government’s plan is designed to stimulate consumption and investment in Australia in order to protect Australian jobs.
The ACT government recognises the importance of this spending and the need to act quickly and responsibly to limit the extent of the national economic flow-down and any associated job losses. This is why this government and other state and territory governments signed up to the plan at last week’s COAG. While the stimulus package may not prevent unemployment from ultimately rising in the ACT due to other events occurring in the national and international economies, it will improve the levels of employment from what would otherwise have occurred had there been no intervention by the commonwealth government.
Both packages indicate a number of things: the growing severity of the global financial crisis and the need to take pre-emptive strikes at ameliorating the economic impacts on Australia and the states and territories; the need for a fiscal injection into the Australian economy to stimulate spending; and the economic activity that will protect Australian jobs. Then there is the need for the short-term expenditure to be in line with the longer-term infrastructure investments for the nation and, most importantly in these uncertain times, the need for strong leadership shown through the collective agreement of all jurisdictions to work together cooperatively. It is important that we understand the economic imperative which has prompted the need for an additional stimulus package.
The economic outlook facing the world is one unparalleled since the Great Depression. The economic crisis which found its origin in the US housing market and the international finance sector is spreading to all parts of the world economy. Trillions of dollars have been lost around the world. The global financial crisis has driven almost all major advanced economies into recession. That includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and Japan. In our region, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand are also in recession, whilst the engines of world growth, China and India, are slowing.
Given the size and scale of the crisis, it would be unwise to expect that Australia could escape from this economic storm. The outlook for Australia is one of declining commodity markets, tight credit markets and a slowing economic growth. We are staring down the barrel of an economic decline, the like of which has not been seen in more than 80 years, and the economic weight bearing down on Australia and the ACT’s shoulders is immense.
Australia’s economic growth is forecast to slow to one per cent in 2008-2009 and to three-quarters of a per cent in 2009-2010. The national unemployment rate is expected to rise to 5.5 per cent by June 2009 and to seven per cent by June 2010.
The questions that parliamentarians and we here in the Assembly need to eventually answer are: what do we do in these dark economic times? Did we meet the economic
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