Julia Gillard on the need for the stimulus.
Employment Minister Julia Gillard said there were still 128,000 more people without work than there were in September 2008, when the global financial crisis struck, and this justified continued stimulus spending.
But the Rudd government, at that time, was worried about the inflation genie. Unemployment in September 2008 was measured at 4.3 percent. According to the MYEFO (at page 24), released late last year, the NAIRU is five percent.
The unemployment rate is projected to decline steadily over the period from 2011-12 to 2014-15, reaching the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) of 5 per cent in 2014-15, two years earlier than anticipated at Budget.
Unemployment is now measured to be 5.3 percent.
