Barry Wakelin (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia is about freedom of choice: individual decision making and freedom from intimidation for us all to live in a free and open society. The lowest unemployment rate in 30 years and the highest wages in our history are proof that there is a positive alternative to all comers. With 17 per cent of the private Australian workforce as union members, clearly 83 per cent of our workforce in the private sector have confidence in themselves and their employer to get a fair go rather than relying on others. The extra 205,000 new jobs created since the new Work Choices laws were passed just over six months ago show the nonsense of Labor’s scare tactics. Australia has come a long way from the first strike in 1791, when the convicts protested their need to have rations issued daily, not weekly. But some still seem to want to stay back in that era. The modern Australian economy is not that, and it is a credit to the government of the day. It shows what a difference positive leadership can make.

That leads me to discuss the role and relevance of unions in the 21st century. I would contend that it is not the union movement that will determine the future of Australia, although we have heard Greg Combet quoted widely on his view about where the union movement should sit in the future of Australia. The future of Australia will be determined by the skills and knowledge which will create the wealth and give the outcome for individuals; it will not depend on other third parties through fear tactics. It will drive Australia past 2006, based on the philosophy that the Howard government has been able to articulate over the last decade. Industry, both domestic and export, is the lifeblood of our economy. Reasonable employer-employee relationships are vital, and the AWAs—that is, of course, the Australian workplace agreements—are essential to that future. To go back to a centralised, 100-year-old system which fails to recognise the diversity within the Australian economy right across this nation is an absurdity too amazing to contemplate.

It is always a great irony to me that, as someone who comes from the Liberal side of politics—the coalition part of the great tradition of Australian politics over the last 100 years—somehow I am able to be portrayed as the wealthy elite, yet I know that my income, averaged out, is significantly lower than that of many of my political opponents. I do not say that as a whinge; I just say that as a statement of fact. The philosophy that I believe in and the adaptability and flexibility that this economy is given by the philosophy that I believe in is the future, and that is what is going to drive our improvement and the wealth that is so important to all Australians and for successive generations.

I now come to discuss the drought. Drought is as old as Australia itself. It is something that we have all become very used to, and anyone who comes from the land understands that we will always be dealing with it. The current circumstances are within the extremes of the Australian climate, and I welcome the government’s approach to it. But, in saying that, it is important to acknowledge the value of the farm management deposits, which have been utilised by many within the agricultural sector, within the farming sector. I thank the government for its development of that important economic vehicle over the last decade that it has been in government.

The exceptional circumstances definition, which we all grapple with at times like this, requires in my view a very strong cooperative effort from local, state and federal government. It serves no good to have political gamesmanship at the core of much of this discussion. It is important that the principle of self-reliance be respected but that the fine balance between self-reliance and the degree of difficulty which can crush an enterprise is recognised—and that is a very difficult thing to do.

It is important that the efforts that this government has made particularly over the last decade to keep interest rates low, to keep inflation under control, to encourage the export sector and to develop the infrastructure of regional Australia—all of those factors—be recognised as very strong positives for the future of regional Australia. It will rain again. The survival of much of our agricultural sector is very important, although not as important as it once was. At one time, the agricultural sector was 40 per cent or more of the export sector of Australia, and now it is significantly lower than that. With the mining resource development and the prices currently on offer throughout the world, the significance of the agricultural sector is nowhere near as great—but still very significant. So I thank the government for its consideration.

I acknowledge the incredible effort that the land managers, the farmers, themselves have put in to manage their land in a way which is unprecedented. Many of us can remember—and certainly we have been told of—the huge land drift problems over the last 150 years. That is a very rare thing these days. The new systems and the discipline of the land manager and the farmers are a credit to all of those farmers and land managers who have been able to bring this about, and I compliment them and acknowledge that here today.

I want to talk briefly about the contemporary situation of Indigenous people in Australia. When Minister Brough opened a new swimming pool at Mimili in the Pitjantjatjara lands last Saturday, I was reminded that it was time to reconcile the challenges of unemployment, passive welfare, violence, too much sexual abuse and poor health outcomes that still bedevil us in 2006.

In conclusion, I want to read into the Hansard the comments of Reverend William Edwards, who appeared in a private capacity before the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs at a hearing held in Adelaide on 23 September 2003. He said:

At that time, Commonwealth finance was unavailable for Aboriginal work. The Presbyterian Board of Missions provided staff salaries—which were fairly low—and occasional extra funding for development work, such as fencing, well sinking et cetera. They also provided a budget in 1958 of $9,600 ... The South Australian government provided some rations for children, nursing mothers and aged persons. Child endowment was paid ...

There were very few social problems in Ernabella at that time.

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