It's amazing to find that anyone really expected Rudd to do anything but the totally stupid economically.

Rudd clearly does not understand the Australian economic model. When you eliminate food, and comodities from our economy (which , by the way, the stimulus has done nothing to help) and look at the balance which is primarily the retail sector some manufacturing and construction. The stimulus does nothing for retail whose model is (1) buy from overseas, (2) sell at a markup and (3) buy some more overseas.
How about manufacturing - well, rudd and his merry band have been handing out millions to the auto industry ever since he has been in power. There has been no improvement. They still are not making the cars the public wants at a price the public will pay. Maybe more cash incentives are needed from our rapidly declining public purse - doubtful it will help though. Rudd also almost destroyed our fledgling solar panel industry when he wiped out the Howard initiated stimulas (only to reinstate it -sorta).

And then there is construction - rudd is throwing huge piles of money around here. But what is he stimulating? The besa block companies? And what will happen when all the school libraries and town halls are built? To paraphrase a Wall Street Journal observation when they studied rudd's stimulus package; there will be lots of new town halls and school libraries where the unemployed can sit and reminisce about the jobs they used to have.

It is all about jobs, to prevent us going into a recession, Rudd's job should be about creating jobs for the next 5 years.

A tax cut means people have more to spend and can plan to spend more in the future. This creates jobs in the economy.

Building rail projects, increasing port facilities, building of infrastructure will create construction jobs now and keep people employ in the future.

This will keep people optimistic and keep people spending.

However Rudd had failed in both his package. The packages does not create jobs, Rudd keep telling people it is a really bad recession (ie tell people not to spend)

And he now wonder why people are losing their jobs. Rudd has done an attrocious job with the economy, including lowering expectation and lowering customer spending and not creating enough jobs.

Australian will suffer in years to come

All rhetoric/dogma no substance. Par for a spear carrier.

BTW re the question on the author’s web site: nothing Australia can do will stop the recession to suggest otherwise is disingenuous

GrahamY,
Can you get the butcher to write his policy arguments (with depth) and not the 'block?' it might have more credibility

And it is coming from China- Watch that space. The Motherland of Socialism since Russia disintegrated.

The best way for an economic correction at this time – is a Royal Commission into the Labour Party. Period-

It appears the government asked for the treasury to prepare a stimulus plan to there specification. With the majority of the government in the lower house the vote was a mere formality. In the upper house the government does not have an majority and needed upper house members to vote for it stimulus package. The fact that only minor changes where made high lightens that the process of legislation cannot be changed as no upper house member would have the resources to formulate there own stimulus package.

Therefore, we have a stimulus package that belongs solely to the government.

While it is easy to suggest more appropriate changes the simple fact is that 42 billion will be spent and the government does not have these funds. To therefore rush the process through without the support of the business community, small business, non Payroll taxpaying business seems to reflect more that something needed to be done and that something needed to be felt immediately by the public and not by business. As the recovery is now recognized as a prolong event, some time in the distant future, the short term gains by this stimulus package seems to be in-appropriate. Further more the infrastructure problems are not going away, even if governments sell them. Infrastructure Partnerships Australia has identified that Sydney loses 4.3billion a year through traffic congestion not to mention the impact that has on green house gases. Yet the well know areas that need attending to have been ignored and the population, immigration, growth strain not abated.

Does any government have the ability to change this, unfortunately no, we have spent the money and things are not going to get any easier for governments that resists changing there own landscape for political gain.