As Labor approaches the second anniversary of its election win, Treasurer Wayne Swan is talking about climate change as economic experts forecast another interest rate rise before Christmas.

Official business investment data due out this week is expected to show more signs of an economic comeback.

Westpac chief economist Bill Evans said positive news on the economy since the Reserve Bank’s last meeting on Melbourne Cup day made another rate rise in December more likely.

“We think the economics of the current situation will justify another move and the data developments since this meeting support that view,” he said.

Treasurer Wayne Swan made no mention of interest rates in his weekly economic note, preferring to focus on the government’s emissions trading scheme (ETS).
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Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan are the new champions of economic management.

A majority of voters believe the economy would have been in a worse state from the global economic crisis if the Liberal Party had been in power, a new survey released on Tuesday showed.

The Liberals - once seen as the superior managers of the economy under John Howard and Peter Costello - appear to have lost their credibility in opposition, with an Essential Research poll finding 41 per cent of respondents saying the economy would have been worse under their control.

Only 36 per cent said it would have been better, the weekly online poll showed.
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The conference, at Sydney’s Darling Harbour, is the first Labor has had in government for 15 years.

It was a low-key start to the conference.

Interest groups gathered in small clusters outside the venue championing their causes.

A man and a woman dressed as a mermaid and King Neptune were among the most colourful as they championed large marine sanctuaries.

Mr Rudd ran through Labor’s achievements since it won government just under two years ago, particularly its economic record during the global recession.
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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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Treasurer Wayne Swan says the federal opposition would prefer to see Australia fail than the Rudd government succeed in moves to counter the global financial crisis.

The coalition has threatened to block budget bills that include a third round of stimulus measures it judges to be wasteful.

“They are just completely irresponsible and reckless,” Mr Swan told ABC Radio on Monday, adding the opposition did not have any positive solutions.
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The federal government’s small business tax relief plan is an admission that Labor has mismanaged the economy, the federal opposition says.

The opposition’s small business spokesman Steve Ciobo has accused the government of eroding Australia’s economic growth and placing 2.4 million small businesses under cash flow stress.

Treasurer Wayne Swan and Small Business Minister Craig Emerson announced the $720 million cash flow boost to small business, self-funded retirees and small superannuation funds struggling due to the global recession.
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The Rudd government is considered better equipped to handle most issues facing the country, although the coalition is still seen as the better manager of the economy - but only just.

Essential Research’s latest weekly survey found the Labor government was considered most capable in 12 of 13 categories, including industrial relations, climate change and political leadership.

Even on interest rates, Labor polled just ahead of the coalition at 27 per cent to 26 per cent, leaving John Howard’s claim that interest rates would always be lower under the coalition to fade into history.
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Labor has used the victim of a failed mortgage scheme in a Queensland state election ad attacking Liberal National Party deputy leader Mark McArdle.

Mr McArdle was a partner in Sunshine Coast law firm Boyce Garrick when mostly elderly investors lost around $30 million in the 1990s.

He was named as a defendant in at least five class actions.
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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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Government claims the International Monetary Fund (IMF) opposes tax cuts as an economic stimulus are false, federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says.

The IMF on Wednesday said it now expects global growth to be just 0.5 per cent in 2009 - the lowest rate since World War II - and a hefty 1.75 percentage point cut from its previous revision in November.

The IMF said countries that had room in their policy framework should make a firm commitment to do more if the situation deteriorated further.
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Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has stepped up his attacks on the government’s handling of the credit crisis, declaring Labor unwilling to discuss the consequences of its actions.

Last week Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the government would spend $10.4 billion trying to stimulate spending in a bid to head off any impact on the real economy from the global financial woes.

The opposition has said it would support the package through parliament but has raised questions about the level of advice the government received prior to developing the plan.
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When you get trade unions agreeing with Liberals on financial matters and business siding with Labor, it is safe to say these really are extraordinary times.

Add to that the biggest rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in 16 years - a full one percentage point - and many people will be wondering what the next twist in the global financial crisis will be.
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The slump in business confidence to recessionary levels is an “abysmal” result for the Rudd government, the federal opposition says.

The latest quarterly National Australia Bank business survey shows confidence has tumbled to its lowest since the 1991 recession as share market turmoil and 12-year high interest rates worry the captains of industry.
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