Business editor Peter Ryan reported this story on Thursday, July 16, 2015 12:09:01

ELEANOR HALL: Now Greece, and it took a marathon debate but this morning the Greek Parliament passed the package of harsh austerity measures that European leaders are demanding to keep the almost bankrupt nation in the eurozone.



The overwhelming "yes" vote for prime minister Alexis Tsipras came despite rebellion by some members of his own party.



Now he faces the challenge of imposing more financial pain on the Greeks, as business editor Peter Ryan reports.



(Sounds from within the Greek Parliament)



GREEK PARLIAMENT SPEAKER (translation): The president calls for order in the house.



PETER RYAN: With much more economic and social pain on the table for Greece, prime minister Alexis Tsripras knew he'd be facing a stormy debate.



Members of his own anti-austerity Syriza Party said they would rebel and vote "no" to the package.



Mr Tsipras sympathised, but said this deal, while harsh, was better than no deal at all.



ALEXIS TSIPRAS (translated): What you have now is an agreement which is harsh but can also give a prospect and a possibility to emerge from the crisis much faster than the end of this program.



PETER RYAN: In a final plea to the 300 seat chamber, Mr Tsipras said Greek banks were running out of cash and with Greece locked out of financial markets, the bailout proposal on offer was the only way to restructure an economy on the brink of collapse.



ALEXIS TSIPRAS (translated): You understand that this is not the country that can tap the markets. If you don't have a very high growth rate and at the same time, if you don't have the necessary debt reconstruction that really, it's no use lying about this.



I know that the measures, the structural measures that we're bringing are harsh but, and I know that they're not going to help the Greek economy, but I also say that I understand that they have to implement them and perhaps that's the difference between you and I.



PETER RYAN: With that final plea, this latest chapter in the Greek crisis went to the vote.



ALEXIS TSIPRAS (translated): So this discussion is finished.



PETER RYAN: Such are the tensions that minor parties demanded the identity and affiliation of every vote cast.



ALEXIS TSIPRAS (translated): This bill will be voted by name after a demand by the Golden Dawn.



PETER RYAN: In the end it was overwhelming with 229 of the 300 votes in favour with 64 against.



The yes came with the help of opposition parties with 38 Syriza members abstaining or voting against, including the former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis who resigned last week.



(Sound of protesters and gun shots)



PETER RYAN: Outside the Greek Parliament as the vote took place, petrol bombs were thrown and tear gas was fired as demonstrators clashed with police.



With high emotions unlikely to die down any time sopon, the real work of implementing the austerity begins now for Greece, according to Rosie Blauer of the Economist magazine.



ROSIE BLAUER: Sometimes it feels like Greece is a naughty child who keeps being told this is their last chance and then they get another one and another one, and here they've kind of you know, come back from the brink but obviously they've got a very difficult road ahead. You know, they've got a huge package of reforms that they still got to get through.



It would be hard for any Parliament, let alone for one in their state. So we've got, you know, pension reforms, labour market reform, privatising their electricity network, strengthening the banks.



So I think we've got a lot to happen before there's any sort of sense that they are kind of safely in the euro again.



(Sound of protesters)



PETER RYAN: With the bailout now overwhelmingly passed in Greece, the terms of the AUD$130 billion lifeline needs to be endorsed by the German Bundestag on Friday.



Then it will be back to the negotiating table, despite urgings from the International Monetary Fund that some of Greece's debt needs to be written off in a "haircut".



The IMF's managing director Christine Lagarde made that point once again after the bailout vote.



CHRISTINE LAGARDE: We have been arguing this for quite a while actually and what is very disappointing is that, while Greece was on a path to sustainability and actually over performing about a year and a half ago, in the last year and a half, there has been a significant deterioration both as a result of the previous government not doing the things that it was supposed to do in terms of measures and the new government delaying some of the measures and also reversing reforms that had been taken, undertaken by the previous team.



So it's the combination of these two over the last 18 months or so which has been quite devastating for the country.



PETER RYAN: But the Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel is still expected to play the hard game, living up to her image as the debt collector of Europe.



ELEANOR HALL: Peter Ryan, our business editor.