Page 728 - Week 02 - Thursday, 12 February 2009
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(f) support for small businesses through a temporary business investment tax break for the purchase of assets.
I think we all know and can see, quite implicitly, that there are moments in history when one must stand and applaud bold action. That is why I have moved this motion, because I believe that this is a moment, and that is why I call on my fellow MLAs to support the motion.
The ACT government recognises the critical importance of the stimulus package and the need to act quickly and responsibly to limit the extent of the national economic slowdown and any associated job losses. That is why the government and the other state and territory governments signed up for the plan at the emergency COAG meeting last week. While the stimulus package may not prevent unemployment rising, we must ask ourselves: how much worse might things have been? How much worse would they have been without the bold intervention of the federal government, without this $42 billion investment in families, in workers, in business and, most importantly, in jobs?
Yesterday I quoted Ron Silberberg from the HIA as saying that the government’s stimulus package will create 35,000 jobs for his industry. It is perhaps important that we look at what Mr Silberberg of the Housing Industry Association believes the consequences of not embracing this stimulus package might be. The Housing Industry Association believes that a failure to pass the national building investment legislation, the stimulus package, could place as many as 85,000 jobs in the housing industry at risk. That is 85,000 jobs in one industry, in the housing industry.
That does bring into stark relief the emergency that we face, the need for bold action and the need for us to acknowledge, support and applaud that bold action. The Housing Industry of Australia believes that a failure to pass this particular bill, this package, would result in the loss of 85,000 jobs in the housing industry alone. And we have to ask: how many of those jobs would be Canberra jobs? How many of the families left without a breadwinner would be Canberra families? How many mum and dad businesses would go to the wall? Who among us here in this Assembly could consciously condemn our neighbours to such a fate? Who among us here in the Assembly is going to sit today and argue that the federal government should not be doing everything in its power, exerting every sinew, pulling out all the stops, to keep those 85,000 Australians in the housing industry alone in work?
Australians have supported this stimulus package. The latest Newspoll shows that a significant majority believe it will be good for the economy. ANZ economists agree. Every state and territory government agrees, including the Liberal Premier of Western Australia, Colin Barnett, who did not hesitate to sign the national agreement with the Prime Minister, the premiers and the chief ministers in support of this package and in support of this package in its entirety.
So what about this Assembly? What about those opposite? What about the Liberal Party that for the last week has stood intransigently in the ditch in opposition to this package in its entirety? What about the crossbench? Where do they stand? How will they vote on this motion? For Canberra jobs and for Canberra families? For Canberra small business? For Canberra bricklayers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers,
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