• The Prime Ministers of Australia and the United Kingdom joined other world leaders in London on April 2nd 2009 to agree a co-ordinated response to the global economic crisis.

Gordon Brown, Kevin Rudd and the G20 leaders issued a communique after a day of constructive talks. Some of the main points are summarised here:

Restoring growth and jobs

• We are undertaking an unprecedented and concerted fiscal expansion, which will save or create millions of jobs which would otherwise have been destroyed, and that will, by the end of next year, amount to $5 trillion, raise output by 4 per cent, and accelerate the transition to a green economy. Today, we have further agreed over $1 trillion of additional resources for the world economy through our international financial institutions and trade finance.

Strengthening financial supervision and regulation

• We agree to extend regulation and oversight to all systemically important financial institutions, instruments and markets.  This will include, for the first time, systemically important hedge funds.

Strengthening our global financial institutions

• In addition to reforming our international financial institutions for the new challenges of globalisation we agreed on the desirability of a new global consensus on the key values and principles that will promote sustainable economic activity.  

Resisting protectionism and promoting global trade and investment

• We will not retreat into financial protectionism, particularly measures that constrain worldwide capital flows, especially to developing countries.

Ensuring a fair and sustainable recovery for all

• We are making available resources for social protection for the poorest countries, including through investing in long-term food security and through voluntary bilateral contributions; and

• we call on the UN, working with other global institutions, to establish an effective mechanism to monitor the impact of the crisis on the poorest and most vulnerable.

Delivering our commitments

• We have committed ourselves to work together with urgency and to meet again before the end of this year to review progress on our commitments.

Click here to see the full text of the communique.