Ummmmm no, as I said - I don't begrudge people getting the handout, I just don't believe it will have the effect the govt. desired (or maybe it will, I'm sure they'll get a few extra votes as a result). As I said, I'm more than happy my parents got some extra cash - the old age pension isn't exactly a huge amount to live on.
But what about my point? Even if the entire $10B was spent the next day and none of it was saved. So it boosted Myer, Woolies, JB HiFi etc December period a bit - now what? Myer will still start laying off people in the coming months if things don't get better for them. That $10B (and the coming $12B) won't be enough to prevent that and by June (assuming the govt. don't announce more of them) it will be a distant memory.
If my business is experiencing sales declines in the current market downturn of 10% yoy, but the months of Dec and now Apr go up 5% instead - how will that stop me from having to lay off staff/cutting hours etc? Yes it's gives a small cashflow reprieve for a short time, then back to whatever the business was doing without the govt. handouts.