The Coalition's two leading economic Ministers appear to be at odds on what needs to happen in economic management.
The AFR reported this morning (behind paywall) that Joe Hockey has realised the economy continues to need Government expenditure as stimulus. He is therefore planning to bring forward road building to cover the drop off in construction activity as mining softens.
But Finance Minister Andrew Robb told ABC Insiders last Sunday that the mining boom isn't over - it is merely resting due to the mining tax. He said;
As of today the mining boom will be rebooted, right. Under Labor it was finished because of the cost uncompetitiveness that we now have. We will change that. There's $150 billion worth of projects there to be grabbed. We can do so much. We can get Australia open for business. We'll restore an appetite for risk and investment, people's jobs will grow massively. Small business will come out from under the huge shadow that they've had for the last two years.
I tend to agree with Joe.
Mind you if he is really concerned he should make sure the Coalition doesn't change the design of the NBN. It takes a long time to ramp up road projects, but NBN Co is now ready to continue the ramp up of its construction activity.
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