AUSTRALIA

Recession Plan Announced: Prime Minister Paul Keating announced a recession-fighting plan last week that would spend an additional $1.7 billion on public works projects in an effort to cut a 10.4% unemployment rate. Keating also proposed tax cuts for business, a one-time $100 payment to 1.9 million qualifying families this spring as well as expanded welfare benefits in this country of 17 million. “It’s a statement that will lead to a turning point in our economic history and our social history,” the Labor Party leader told parliament. “It will help us to bring on a recovery, to lift employment.” Keating said in the nationally televised address that he hopes to create 800,000 jobs by boosting public works spending $1.7 billion over the next year. Opposition leader John Hewson called Keating’s proposal “one of the most irresponsible packages” ever introduced in Australia because optimistic projections about growth mean “it’s undeliverable.”