business leaders want more details on economy

The people in the street want details as well.

By Online parliamentary correspondent Emma Rodgers

Posted 13 minutes ago

Business leaders are calling on the Government to release more details about the state of the economy ahead of their crisis meeting with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd today.

The talks have been organised by the Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) and will be attended by a range of industry leaders including mining, IT and media.

Ai Group's Heather Ridout says businesses support the Government's recent moves to guarantee bank deposits and the release of almost half the Budget surplus to stimulate the economy.

But she says more information on the state of the economy is also needed.

"Business is really wanting a deeper understanding of what they think is in front of us and how they need to adjust their business plans," she told Lyndal Curtis on AM.

"They're certainly getting plenty of signals from the market place and I think they're after information and they're clearly very concerned.

"Business needs to understand where the Government sees the international and local economy going."

Ms Ridout says the Government also needs to take on board the concerns of business.

"They need to receive feed back from business on how they're finding conditions, how they're approaching business over the next 12 months," she said.

Mr Rudd said the Government is keen to find out from business if further action needs to be taken.

"It's very important to hear directly from the business community on the ground about what's going on and what further actions may be necessary in the future," he told Sky News.

"Canberra is not the ultimate repository of all wisdom."


Motives questioned

Opposition treasury spokeswoman Julie Bishop says the public will begin to question the Prime Minister's motives if he does not release the advice he received prior to releasing the $10.4 billion economic stimulus plan.

Mr Rudd announced the package, in which pensioners and some families will receive one-off payments, earlier in the week but has since refused to detail what information from Treasury led to the Government's decision to spend almost half the Budget's surplus by December.

Ms Bishop says the public and business need to know if Treasury has revised its growth and unemployment predictions for the Australian economy.

"The longer the Prime Minister withholds this vital information the more likely people are to question his motives," she told Radio National.

"If the Government can show us these forecasts, bring them forward, show us what Treasury has told them, then there won't be any questions about why we're spending half the Budget surplus before Christmas."

Ms Bishop denies the Coalition is withdrawing its support of the package, which she concedes is needed, but says the Opposition expected to be told why the decision was taken.

"We assumed - and I'm sure business assumed, because they are calling for this information as well - that there would be underlying material to indicate why a package of this size and this composition was needed," she said.

Mr Rudd says the Government had to act after the US economy worsened in recent weeks and IMF figures revised growth down globally.

"After the Government received information of events in US over recent weeks it decided after talks in Treasury that a stimulus package was needed immediately," he said.

"We didn't want to turn around in nine months time and say, 'Boy, I wish we had given the economy a bigger buffer for growth and jobs for the future'."

Mr Rudd says the Government is committed to keeping the Budget in surplus despite the large spending plan but also said the Government will do whatever necessary to keep the economy stable.