When governments throw cash at things, my instinct it to reject it, however in this case it's the right course of action.

The government is following the advice of treasury and the vast weight of independent advice.

What's more, they're doing so in a more cautious, limited manner than most western countries. Our spending is less than most other countries - if anything, we should be damned for being too cautious.

Of course it sounds like crass spending. That's what a 'stimulus' is. And runner, the idea is to give it to people who will spend it. Saving the money would do absolutely nothing - the problem is that money may stop flowing in the economy. Giving the money to savers wouldn't work. While spending on the health system sounds nice, the problem we have is limited staff - the idea of the stimulus is to get more money in the economy. Hiring more nurses and docs would be a great idea, but guess what? They've been trying that for years. Simply buying specialised equipment wouldn't be the jolt in the arm the economy needs.

People, if you want to get a decent picture of the situation, read Steketee's piece here - in my estimation, he's one of the few journos who don't show political favouritism, and he's got a good grasp of economics.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25018087-7583,00.html

This is the key paragraph:

"International Monetary Fund chief economist Olivier Blanchard describes the present behaviour of investors, consumers and businesses around the world as "outright paralysis", leading to a collapse in demand and production and a consequent deep recession. His advice to policy-makers, in part, is: "On the consumption side, commit to do whatever it will take to avoid a depression, from fiscal stimulus to quantitative easing. Commit to do more in the future if necessary. Above all, adopt clear policies and act decisively. Do too much rather than too little. Delays in financial packages have cost a lot already." The IMF is not known for its reckless economic advice: to the contrary, it has become notorious for imposing harsh contractionary policies on countries"

“Swan concerns me, Rudd thrills me”

Belly, I just hope that Rudd doesn’t disappoint you within the next year or so. I must say, he’s not appealing much to me so far.

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“Insulation bats…. Misses the point?”, “School refurbishments…Misses the point?”

Yes spindoc, I think these expenditures miss the point terribly.

We need to work out what the weakest links in upholding a high quality of life in our near future are. I’d say that one of them is getting by when the price of oil goes through the roof. It is not hard to imagine what will happen when transport fuels become a whole lot more expensive. We quite desperately need to gear up to alternative energy sources and more efficient methods of transport.

SURELY this is where a great deal of Rudd’s infrastructure expenditure and job creation should be directed.

I think that the massive expenditure on schools is misdirected and very poorly thought out.

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“Man arnt I stupid in thinking that one has to WORK for a living when all I have to do is do nothing and get a pay increase for the privlige as you suggest!”

Rehctub, by way of clarification; I suggest that the dole be increased considerably, but still well short of the minimum wage.

When the economy is booming along and jobs are abundant, the dole should be reduced right down to bare bones. But in the current climate, where people are losing their jobs in great numbers due to no fault of their own, and are very hard-pressed to find new jobs, the safety net should be upped considerably. Do you really have a problem with this?

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“Australia for the Australians is a wee bit too late…”

Not at all examinator. Rudd is on about jobs, jobs, jobs. So is Turnbull. They have the support of the people for this. Well, whose jobs do you think they are talking about? Australians’ jobs of course. So lets match reality with rhetoric and concentrate on jobs for current Australians, and not for current Australians plus hundreds of thousands of immigrants.

The question is not simple to put in move the machine (economy) But to grab this opportunity to create something usefull, something which we have to do in the future, something which could improve the quality of life in a big part of our society, something which will save money for the state in the future and may be give some income to the state.
NOT SIMPLE TO PUT ON MOVE THE MACHINE, BUT TO PUT ON MOVE THE MACHINE FOR LONGER TIME.
Soon or later the developed countries have to solve the problems which related to retired people.
If before 5 persons worked for each retired person today only 1 person worked for each retired person and in the future even less.
If yesterday the average life was 65 years tomorrow it will be 120!
We have the opportunity to solve this problem now, instead in the future in worst conditions.
We do not simple want to put on move the machine but we want to do this with the maximum posible usefulness.
CREATE NOW THE VILAGES, HOSPITALS ETC WHICH OUR RETIRED PEOPLE WILL NEED.
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide

“Somehow I doubt we will be workshopping our way out of this, we're pretty much pharked.”

Meredith, I’ve got no doubt that we could quickly ‘workshop’ our way into undertaking a much more effective and efficient ‘rescue’ attempt.

With the current approach I think we are pretty much phrooted!

Ludwig my thoughts on Rudd are my considered ones.
Not biased not my party right or wrong, see my concerns here about Swan, a member of my union.
Each of us has every right to his/her view, I understand you are not challenging it.
In fact you are one of the best posters here, but we differ we often do.
I claim some understanding of politics, I think I told of the election outcome long before it came.
Rudd has no magic wand, no one has, he however will go down in history as one of the greatest Labor leaders.
Rudd is not going to fix the global crisis, he is not even going to fix Australia's crisis.
He is not trying to, he is trying to stop the slide down a very steep slope.
He may not be able to, but he understands much more than Turnbull, some Australians own no home, want no relief from debt, just food on the table for kids, a job, some roof over their heads, some of those people never stood to gain from high home prices interest share prices, but they are the first victims.
Rudd will not let me down.
Men like Bill Shorten follow and a young giant of the future filling Bills former roll will not let me down Labor has great leadership and great future as conservatives are lost, remote from those they need to vote for them ,as they once did for Howard.

Meredith,
Me a leftie hmmmmm I don't fit the profile.
I simply take a wider perspective of things other than left or right.
I ask what good is a system that in prone to corruption, manipulation, gives cover for human's worst aspects and is prone to periodic catastrophic failures in which the least able suffer the most? Be that socialist or capitalistic?
As for your vegie patch, to be a good conservative you need underpaid serfs working it and sell your produce in order to buy a commercially available bow and arrow .
As for the cabbages no thanks they make me phart. :-)