Page 1253 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
the Treasurer went to this point yesterday as well—characterised by massive job losses and high unemployment rates. Economies, in fact, shed jobs in recessions, and that is how all leading and serious economists describe recessions. If one looks at the national accounts and the range of economic indicators, they are not showing a recession in the ACT.
Thirdly, it is ludicrous in any case to suggest that this government’s decisions over the past seven years have resulted in the technical recession. It seems to me that through this motion the opposition actually accuses this government of causing the global financial crisis. One wonders whether President Barack Obama, in announcing his $1.4 trillion toxic loan rescue package yesterday, actually reflected on the fact that his $1.4 trillion US package was a result of decisions taken by me and Katy Gallagher. I think not. That claim is really quite absurd from the Liberal Party in this place and I think is a sign of their desperation. I am happy to accept some responsibility, but, I must say, the tortuous logic that the shadow treasurer just presented suggests that he honestly believes that Barack Obama was forced to deliver yesterday a $US1.4 trillion rescue package in relation to toxic loans as a result of decisions that I have taken here in the ACT.
I think Mr Smyth and the Liberal Party actually accord us in that a status or a capacity just a touch or a tad beyond the reality—that Jon Stanhope and Katy Gallagher are at the heart of the collapse of the mortgage market in the United States of America; that Barack Obama was forced to actually invest $US1.4 trillion yesterday because of decisions that Jon Stanhope and Katy Gallagher have or have not taken in the ACT. That is really at the heart of this motion today—it is all our fault and that Jon Stanhope and Katy Gallagher led to the collapse of the home mortgage market in the United States of America.
But if we go back just to the local situation for the ACT budget, we do need to acknowledge, and we do acknowledge, that recessions are unpleasant. They are, in fact, very painful, They have very significant effects on people’s jobs, on people’s families and on people’s capacity to engage and to live the sorts of fulfilling lives that each of us has a right to live. In a recession, people who want work cannot find work. Wealth is lost and dreams are shattered, and it is painful and we need to acknowledge and underscore that. That is why we do need to work together. That is why it is important that we do not talk the economy down. That is why we do not actually allow this lack of confidence that the Liberal Party is showing in the ACT and the ACT economy to become self-fulfilling.
We must ensure that we do not allow the Liberal Party to talk us into a recession with these constant ill-founded, ill-directed attacks on the ACT economy, on its inherent strength and on our capacity as a community to work together to find our way through. I think the strongest advocate of this, the advocate within the community who I think is conscious of the damage the Liberal Party is doing and constantly insists that we need to ensure that we do not, through the sorts of motions which the Liberal Party has moved today, talk ourselves into a recession is, of course, Chris Peters.
Just recently, in late January, Chris Peters in a speech said that it is confidence that drives our economy and that:
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .