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Australian Government's stimulus package
Thursday, February 5, 2009

On the 3rd of February, the Australian Government announced a A$42bn stimulus package.

Key measures funded by the announcements Nation Building and Jobs Plan include:

Free ceiling insulation for around 2.7 million Australian homes;
Build or upgrade a building in every one of Australia’s 9,540 schools;
Build more than 20,000 new social and defence homes;
$950 one off cash payments to eligible families, single workers, students, drought effected farmers and others;
A temporary business investment tax break for small and general businesses buying eligible assets; and
Significantly increase funding for local community infrastructure and local road projects.

In all, I think a much better package than the cash handouts done in the $10.4 billion Economic Security Strategy announced in October 2008. My belief is that cash bonuses rarely get used for the purposes intended... all they do is prolong bad habits.

I was particularly happy to see the business investment tax break as I believe this is much better spending for our economy that individual consumer spending due to the fact it goes towards creating income. I'm happy to have someone with economics study debate and correct me on that point.