Australia best refuge in downturn: Swan

Australia is the country best placed to ride out the global economic downturn, says
federal Treasurer Wayne Swan.
His comment follows revelations the recession in the United States has claimed a
total of 4.4 million jobs and pushed unemployment as high as 8.1 per cent for the
first time in 26 years.
Mr Swan said the government's boost to the first-home owners' grant late last year
and the $42 billion economic stimulus package was holding Australia in good stead.
"We have seen overnight further substantial job losses in the United States,
something like a further 650,000 job losses," he said.
"This demonstrates the importance of economic stimulus and the importance of
governments acting early," Mr Swan said.
"Almost three quarters of the $42 billion is going into direct investment and the
biggest school modernisation program in our history, and investment in energy and
efficiency.
"If there was any country you'd want to be in, in the middle of this global
recession, it's Australia."
Mr Swan was speaking at the official launch of Queensland's first mixed-tenure
public-private housing development at the northern Brisbane suburb of Nudgee on
Saturday.
The Earnshaw Haven development by the Brisbane Housing Company contains 43
affordable houses for people who have been on the public housing waiting list and 41
home-and-land packages.
Pensioner Prue Andreasson, 61, one of the development's public housing residents,
says she previously faced homelessness because of rising rents in the private
market.
"I have a mental illness. Since I have been here, I have never felt so good. Even my
doctor has said he has never seen me look so well," Ms Andreasson said.
"It has given me a life. Before, I was just surviving."
Mr Swan said the project boosted jobs, invested in public housing and supported
first home owners.
"Over half of the house-and-land packages are going to first-home owners," Mr Swan
said.
"We are now seeing the benefits of the first home owners' boost."