Image from ABC TV 7.30 Report According to Peter Martin writing on his blog today:
WAYNE Swan and Kevin Rudd have received a ringing endorsement of their $20 billion series of "cash splashes" as new evidence points to a four month-long shopping shopping spree unmatched in the developed world.
Retail sales figures for March point to a jump of 2.2 per cent in seasonally-adjusted spending, more than offsetting a dive of 2 per cent in February.
Since the first stimulus payout in December Australian retail spending has climbed an extraordinary 4.5 per cent, a result unmatched in the United States in which spending slumped 2.5 per cent, New Zealand in which spending slumped 1.7 per cent, and Canada and Japan in which spending slumped 3.1 per cent.
Only in the United Kingdom among other developed countries did spending increase in those four months and that was by 1.6 per cent, less than half of the Australian boost...
Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Turnbull's smug and misleading contribution on ABC TV 7.30 Report last night in which he:
a) called Kerry O'Brien a liar
MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, Kerry, I don't think - you clearly haven't read the speech or ...
KERRY O'BRIEN: I did. And I watched most of it.
MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well I don't think you have.
b) went on to deny any effectiveness of the cash payments in the first Rudd Government stimulus package
MALCOLM TURNBULL: Kerry, there are no - Kerry, there is nobody - nobody has contended that anything more than 20 per cent of the December cash splash was spent. So 80 per cent was saved. The more that is saved, the less impact it has. It was only a week or so, wasn't it, that the International Monetary Fund's chief economist made the point that cash splashes are not effective because in times like this they tend to be saved? That's exactly what I said last December.
KERRY O'BRIEN: The Reserve Bank Board governor said as recently as yesterday, "The stance of monetary policy together with the substantial fiscal initiatives will provide support to domestic demand over the period ahead." By "fiscal initiatives supporting domestic demand" he's obviously referring to Mr Rudd's stimulus package?
MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, Kerry, you can say that.
KERRY O'BRIEN: No, no, I'm not saying it. The Reserve Bank governor said it.
c) then managed the biggest porkie of the interview
MALCOLM TURNBULL: Yeah, Kerry, if I was Prime Minister today ...
KERRY O'BRIEN: Yes.
MALCOLM TURNBULL: ... more Australians would be employed, the economy would be stronger and general debt levels would be lower. And that is because we would not have spent money so recklessly and so ineffectively, so debt levels would be lower; we would not have talked up inflation and interest rates in 2008, so the economy would be stronger; and it follows, therefore, there would be more people in work and government revenues would be higher.
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