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Australia: Govt Has Economic Fundamentals Right - Swan |
| Source: |
au.news.yahoo.com |
| Source Date: |
Thursday, June 23, 2011 |
| Focus: |
Electronic and Mobile Government, Citizen Engagement, Internet Governance
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| Country: |
Australia |
| Created: |
Jun 28, 2011 |
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Treasurer Wayne Swan says he is proud of the government's achievements in the past year, while the opposition has done nothing other than persistently talk the economy down.
It's almost one year since Kevin Rudd was rolled as Labor leader and Mr Swan was promoted to deputy leader under Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
"We have got the economic fundamentals right," Mr Swan told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
"There is no doubt the opposition has been talking our economy down, day after day, week after week, in fact, year after year."
Mr Swan said he was most proud of the growth in jobs under this government. The budget shows a further 500,000 jobs are expected to be created in the next two years.
The treasurer said the agreements between Telstra and Optus with NBN Co announced on Thursday demonstrated how worthwhile long-term reform was.
"It demonstrates in the short term it can be difficult to achieve, it demonstrates that in the short term if you are committed to structural reforms, you lose a bit of paint on the way," he said.
"But when you get them in place they bring big economic dividends, and when they bring those economic dividends, they bring the political dividends with them as well."
But the treasurer conceded the economy was suffering some short-term softness as a result of the summer's natural disasters, while there was lingering uncertainty from the hangover of the global financial crisis, which was impacting on sentiment.
"On the other side of the ledger, we still have very strong employment growth, something like 250,000 jobs in the past year," he said.
"We have a very strong investment pipeline, record investment in resources particularly, something like $80 billion in the year ahead."
The government is also engaged in a substantial fiscal consolidation to bring the budget back to surplus in 2012/13, Mr Swan said.
"Consumers have been more cautious than they have been in the past.
"(But) what I would say to all Australians are our prospects are strong. At the moment people are cautious and things are a little softer than people would like, but our prospects are bright."
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Australia: Govt Has Economic Fundamentals Right - Swan Treasurer Wayne Swan says he is proud of the government's achievements in the past year while the opposition has done nothing other than persistently talk the economy down
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