The fault lines of the Rudd stimulus package(s)

Then there are our consumer goods.

Just what percentage of local content is in Australia's consumer goods? What percentage is only part local content?

As for the agriculture and aquaculture sectors, consider the imported fruits, vegetables, juices, and processed foods, as well as a wide range of seafood.

If the government had exercised restraint and ignored rhetoric and grandstanding, the original $10.4 billion would still be in reserve for the future.

It will be interesting to see just how much of the next $40 billion will stay in Australia after deducting foreign content.

Without a broader local base, the more Australians spend on consumer goods the higher Australia's foreign debt.

And finally the jobs.

It must be great comfort to all Australians to realise that Wayne Swan has the confidence in Woolworths to reenergise the Australian economy, especially the amazing contribution over the Christmas period of the last quarter of 2008. Can he be more specific however, about the 70,000 jobs he claimed that the initiative saved in the 4th quarter 2008? Surely, he is not relying on Woolworths once again to provide the jobs for the newly retrained unemployed.

The infrastructure package does have the capacity to provide substantial job opportunities. When analysing this sector however, one sees corporations with an over supply of labour, especially union labour that are common to the resource and construction sectors. So where are the new jobs?

For Australia to benefit from the Rudd Keynesian Stimulus Package Part II our economic base will need to diversify and our trade polices need reviewing.

The Pacific Brands fiasco revealed just how little local brands contribute to Australia's economy. Pacific admitted that even before the layoffs, 75 per cent of the product content was already imported.

Pacific Brands is a glaring example, and a warning bell for Australia's future economic and manufacturing planning.