Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says $10 billion personal tax cuts slated for July next year could be bought forward if the current economic stimulus package fails.
Mr Swan today said the Government hoped the $10.4 billion package announced last week would be sufficient to limit the effect of the crisis on the Australian economy.
However, he has tried to talk down the idea and says the current stimulus should be enough.
"We've got a very substantial package out there, a very big boost to the economy for the short-term and what we have said is 'we will look at other initiatives should they be required by the severity of the international global financial crisis'," he said.
In a newspaper interview today Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner also did not rule out using the tax cuts to provide a further boost to the economy.
Earlier, Opposition Treasury spokeswoman Julie Bishop told Channel 10 the Government needs to produce evidence to show the tax cuts are needed.
"What we would like to see from the Government is the advice that they are relying upon, the forecasts that they have now [which] would justify them doing these things," she said.
Mr Swan has also taken a swipe at Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull's claims the Government had exaggerated the impact of the crisis on Australia.
"Malcolm Turnbull must be the only political leader in the world who thinks the global financial crisis is hyped up," he said.
"This is a massive gaffe from Malcolm Turnbull because it shows how out of touch he is with the impact of the global financial crisis on families and businesses.
"He should go tell all of those people who have been hit with higher borrowing costs or had their super affected by the global financial crisis that it's hyped up."
Meanwhile, Mr Swan welcomed an agreement between US President George Bush and his European counterparts to stage a series of international summits to deal with the crisis.
The first summit is planned for November after the US presidential elections.
"We have been calling for global action and indeed there has been coordinated global action in recent weeks, we think this is a very positive initiative," he said.
He said Australia had already prepared a number of submissions on how world leaders could best deal with the crisis.
"We do need a new international agenda through the financial stability forum to make sure that these events never happen again," he said.
