Gillard outlines G20 push

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has outlined her vision for Europe’s recovery from its economic woes and her message at the G20.

Ms Gillard is attending the G20 meeting at the Mexican resort town of Los Cobos.

She said European leaders needed to take decisive action and the solutions were three-fold.

A strengthening and recapitalisation of European banks, greater fiscal and banking integration across Europe and economic growth were needed to get Europe back on track, the prime minister said.

“Go for growth but with rules that will allow them to repair their budget balances over time,” Ms Gillard told ABC TV late on Monday.

Ms Gillard said she would be advocating that countries have specific commitments to bolstering growth and jobs, fiercely resist protectionism and to honour International Monetary Fund commitments, as well as agree to more free trade.

“It’s too easy for countries during difficult economic times to slide away from free trade and that will end up being a problem for the whole world,” she said.

The prime minister said she did not underestimate the political difficulties of European countries banding together but it was vital for the single biggest economic bloc to recover.

“We’re talking about a large number of countries coming together and finding common accord but the world has an interest in seeing a strong and stable eurozone,” she said.

The Australian economy was not strongly directly exposed to Europe but was exposed through its major trading partners.

Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey ridiculed a letter sent by Ms Gillard and Treasurer Wayne Swan to their European counterparts urging them to get their financial and fiscal positions in order.

Mr Hockey said the government should be more focused on addressing the vulnerabilities in the Australian economy.

Ms Gillard said productivity was a major challenge for the economy but Labor was working hard to address the issue through various means, including through its National Broadband Network, which would replace the copper network that would “choke off” productivity gains.

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes