Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

It is my privilege to support this matter of public importance on the failure of the 2007 budget to secure future economic prosperity by addressing the nation’s long-term challenges of flagging productivity growth and climate change. I want to start by thanking the Treasurer for doing something that Labor has been doing for a very long period. For a long time, Labor has been talking about education and climate change, two issues which go to the very heart of our economic prosperity and our survival as a nation, two issues which are absolutely central to the future of the nation.

Education is central to boosting productivity in Australia, and lifting productivity is the way we can guarantee rising living standards beyond the mining boom. The recent Intergenerational report delivered that message as well—that lifting productivity is the key to future wealth creation beyond the mining boom. We all know that two key elements of lifting productivity are education and modern infrastructure. They are absolutely central. They are just as central as climate change, which has to be addressed in an absolutely comprehensive way. If we do not address climate change, future prosperity will be threatened. So thank you, Treasurer, for inserting two words which were not in last year’s budget speech—productivity and climate change. Those two words were missing completely—

See this speech in context