TONY EASTLEY: The Federal Government will use the resumption of Parliament this week, to push the case for continuing its economic stimulus strategy. G20 Finance Ministers meeting in London at the weekend, agreed stimulus spending should continue, but the Opposition will use Parliament this week to press the Government to scale back the payments, and explain how it's going to pay back millions of dollars in borrowed money. The Government says the Opposition doesn't understand the risks that still face the Australian economy. Lindsay Tanner is the Federal Finance Minister, and he's speaking here with our reporter, Naomi Woodley, in Canberra.
NAOMI WOODLEY: Lindsay Tanner, good morning, and welcome to AM.
LINDSAY TANNER: Good morning, Naomi.
NAOMI WOODLEY: Is it time to start telling people how the Government plans to scale back its stimulus spending?
LINDSAY TANNER: No, it's not, we intend to continue with the stimulus strategy, and we've just had the G20, the IMF, the OECD all indicate that this is the appropriate path forward for both the global economy, and the Australian economy. Malcolm Turnbull must be the only person in Australia who thinks that the stimulus should be withdrawn, that would just mean higher unemployment, and more businesses failing, and he can't cite a single, credible, external source, to support his approach.
NAOMI WOODLEY: What level of economic stability will be required to begin an exit strategy, is the Government waiting until the return to trend growth of three per cent?
LINDSAY TANNER: The exit strategy is built in, but the stimulus payments were basically designed to occur over a couple of years, we're well into the period over which the stimulus package applies, that will continue, but it is provided to scale down already, as I've indicated, and therefore we don't need to fiddle with it, particularly given that although recent growth figures have been better than expected, they are still pretty modest, and if there were no stimulus continuing, there would be a risk of Australia sliding back into negative growth.
NAOMI WOODLEY: How can you say that fiscal and monetary policy are working together, when the Reserve Bank is indicating it'll soon put up the official cash rate, while the Government is still spending its stimulus money?
LINDSAY TANNER: The Reserve Bank is not indicating that it'll soon put up interest rates, it has only indicated that at some point in the future, interest rates can be expected to rise, because they have been at emergency lows. It's given no indication as to when that might be, and it is unclear as to what point we will see a return to ordinary growth in the Australian economy, it's certainly not happening in the immediate future.
NAOMI WOODLEY: So you reject any suggestion that fiscal and monetary policy aren't working together, or in harmony, as the Government says it is?
LINDSAY TANNER: There's no evidence to suggest that that's the case, people who not so long ago, were saying that things were dire, now seem to be saying that there wasn't a problem, that everything is fine, that the Australian economy's in great shape, and there's no need for Government intervention, to sustain jobs and growth. The Liberal Party are completely incoherent on these things, they say that we are too interventionist, that we are supporting the economy one minute, that we haven't done enough the next minute, they are all over the place.
TONY EASTLEY: The Finance Minister, Lindsay Tanner, speaking there with Naomi Woodley, in Canberra.| Media Contact: | Website: |
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| Nardia Dazkiw - 0418 144 690 | www.financeminister.gov.au |
