Fed: Coalition seizes IMF comments on infrastructure spending

AAP General News (Australia)
04-24-2009
Fed: Coalition seizes IMF comments on infrastructure spending

CANBERRA, April 24 AAP - The coalition has seized on comments by the International
Monetary Fund's (IMF) chief economist Olivier Blanchard who said the federal government
should prioritise infrastructure spending.

Mr Blanchard told ABC TV on Thursday that spending on roads, ports and other major
projects was the best way to spare Australia from the doldrums of the global financial
crisis.

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull echoed Mr Blanchard's sentiments on Friday, saying
that the risk with Labor's cash handouts was that the public may save, instead of spend
them.

"(Prime Minister Kevin) Rudd has been running up a lot of debt, borrowing a huge amount
of money - $23 billion in fact - and handing it out over four months in cash handouts,"

Mr Turnbull told ABC Radio.

"It hasn't created jobs, it hasn't prevented the economy from going backwards and the
IMF is here validating the very criticism we've been making for the best part of six months."

While Mr Turnbull acknowledged the economy needed a stimulus, he said Labor had chosen
the wrong kind.

"The best form of stimulus consists of spending money on economic infrastructure," he said.

But Acting Treasurer Lindsay Tanner said only 30 per cent of the government's second
$42 billion stimulus package was spent on cash handouts.

"There is an important place for cash payments because they get money moving quickly
and they help sectors like retail," Mr Tanner said.

"But the bulk of the government's stimulus package does relate to building infrastructure,
leaving a productive legacy for our nation's future."

AAP bsb/ldj

KEYWORD: ECONOMY TURNBULL

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