Reckless federal government spending is to blame for plummeting housing finance figures, Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey says.

Total housing finance by value fell 1.6 per cent in November, seasonally adjusted, with a drop in owner-occupied housing commitments having the biggest impact.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data shows housing finance commitments for owner-occupied housing fell 5.6 per cent for the month, seasonally adjusted.

The result was much worse than economists’ predictions of a 0.5 per cent drop.

Mr Hockey blamed the federal government’s stimulus spending for the fall, saying it had to led to higher interest rates.
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Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey warns that further tightening of Australian banks’ lending practices will place an undue burden on small business.

At the Group of 20 (G20) summit’s conclusion last week, the world’s leading developed and developing nations agreed to improve the quantity and quality of bank capital and “discourage excessive leverage”.

Mr Hockey said he was keen to see more detail from the forum on capital adequacy requirements, the ratio of a bank’s capital to its risk, and what impact they would have on Australian financial institutions.

“Already you are seeing the Australian banks run a very tight line with small business,” he told ABC TV on Sunday.
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photo credit: furryscalyA $58 billion federal budget deficit is forecast for next financial year - it’s Groundhog Day, according to shadow treasurer Joe Hockey.

Launching into a tirade against Treasurer Wayne Swan’s second budget, which forecasts that about one million people will be unemployed in 2010/11, Mr Hockey said deficits were inevitable when Labor was pulling the nation’s purse strings.

“It’s like Groundhog Day in this place,” he told parliament.

“The Labor party comes in and Australia heads towards recession.

“The Labor party comes in and we reach record levels of deficit and debt.”
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The federal government will post a budget deficit of about $30 billion as 300,000 workers lose their jobs during Labor’s first term, shadow treasurer Joe Hockey says.

The IMF has slashed its forecast for Australian economic growth, warning policy action in response to the global recession will have a limited impact.

Releasing its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF forecast Australian growth would contract by 1.4 per cent in 2009, before growing by 0.6 per cent in 2010.
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Ten interest rate rises under the previous coalition government were the driver for an increase in the number of fixed rate mortgages, federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has told parliament.

New opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey had asked Mr Swan whether he regretted talking up inflation after the November 2007 federal election given that 75,000 people subsequently locked into fixed interest rate loans.

“Hasn’t the treasurer made the global financial crisis far worse for at least 75,000 Australian families,” Mr Hockey asked in parliament.
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The federal opposition has not ruled out blocking the government’s $42 billion stimulus package.

Bills to allow the government to appropriate and spend the $42 billion under its nation building and jobs package will be introduced into the lower house on Wednesday.

But opposition finance spokesman Joe Hockey says the coalition has not yet even seen the bills.
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