09-August-2011
Portfolio Media Releases
Australia’s vulnerability to current global economic threats highlights the madness of Labor’s plan to borrow another $10 billion to establish a ‘Bob Brown Bank’.
“To put this into perspective, $10 billion was the size of the first stimulus package which was brought down to combat the global financial crisis in 2008,” Shadow Minister for Finance and Debt Reduction Andrew Robb said.
“At a time of low confidence across our economy, if Labor abandoned its plan to establish the so-called Clean Energy Finance Corporation it would send a positive signal to households and businesses that it understands the importance of prudent economic management.
“This corporation will be merely a slush fund to appease Bob Brown and the Greens and it will see billions of borrowed dollars pumped into risky renewable energy projects that the conventional banks wouldn’t touch,” Mr Robb said.
The decision to set up the ‘Bob Brown Bank’ was made after the government lifted the Commonwealth debt ceiling to an unprecedented quarter of a trillion dollars – $250 billion.
“Government debt is extremely high by Australian standards and analysis shows that our growth in debt since Labor came to office in 2007 is third only behind Iceland and Ireland,” Mr Robb said.
“It simply defies logic that the Gillard government would be prepared to borrow $10 billion on top of its existing debt simply to keep the Greens happy.”