- Apr 3, 2006
- 33,501
- 11,915
- AFL Club
- Geelong
Some terrible opinions you got there. And if you're that worried about Labor's debt (165b), you would be shouting from the rooftops about the Coalition's debt (550b+ and growing).
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan ... saved the country. Australia was the only developed nation not to go into recession during the global financial crisis but the ignoble response from Opposition leaders Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott (who soon replaced him) to the stimulus and borrowing required sowed the seeds for the difficult times the country now faces.
~ Pádraig Collins, Irish economics writer, 2017
The great merit of the (Labor) government was to adopt a strongly counter-cyclical fiscal policy stance. The fiscal expansion that started in 2008 was the right move at the right time … There are simply no empirical foundations to the statement that Rudd and Gillard mismanaged the economy. In fact, the data tell exactly the opposite story.
~ Fabrizio Carmignani, United Nations economist, 2013
‘Australia has navigated the global recession brilliantly ... there's no other developed country that's done half as well. If you made a list of the developed countries that have done well in this recession, Australia is at the top.’
~ Anirvan Banerji, Economic Cycle Research Institute, New York, 2009
‘Kevin Rudd ... put in place one of the best-designed Keynesian stimulus packages of any country in the world. He realized that it was important to act early, with money that would be spent quickly, but that there was a risk that the crisis would not be over soon. So the first part of the stimulus was cash grants, followed by investments, which would take longer to put into place. Rudd’s stimulus worked.’
~ Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Colombia University, Nobel Prize winner
“I think the Australian response to the crisis was well-judged and highly successful. It’s depressing, though understandable, that the Australian public doesn’t realise what a good job was done and what a bullet we dodged.”
~ Professor John Quiggin, University of Queensland’s School of Economics
‘The effectiveness of our stimulus was due to both the size of its measures and the speed with which they were introduced. The targeting of households and schools (on which work can be undertaken rapidly) also contributed to the speed of its effect. So it seems the design of the stimulus is critical.’
~ Christopher Stone, research director, Centre for Policy Development, 2013
‘The Australian Treasury estimates that without the stimulus packages the unemployment rate would have been forecast to peak at 10 per cent rather than 8½ per cent. With the stimulus, there are estimated to be up to 210,000 more people with jobs.’
~ Dr Steven Kennedy, Treasury General Manager, 2009
Australia's high level of political stability and governance is maintained, which supports the country's attractive business climate ... Australia has remained one of the strongest performing economies in the AAA universe since the global financial crisis began’.
~ Fitch credit rating agency, London and New York, 2013.
