Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I certainly disagree most strongly with the proposition put by the member for Prospect that the budget fails what he calls ‘the Friedman test’ in preparing this country for the future, because nothing could be further from the truth. We have heard nothing from the opposition—up until recently—other than hot air and rhetoric.

An unusual thing happened at the ALP conference. We saw a couple of things starting to occur. We saw the Leader of the Opposition make it pretty clear that he takes the vote of the Australian people for granted. We also saw the Leader of the Opposition cast doubt on the ability of someone of a particular chronological age to function at a high level in this community. If you went to a focus group and asked them the question: ‘If someone is a certain age, does that mean they cannot run a country or they cannot run a major corporation?’ they would tell you very strongly that they certainly can. And there is very strong objection to that notion put by the Leader of the Opposition that if you grew up in the era of black-and-white television you are somehow less worthy to hold high office than if you were a child of the era of colour television.

We also saw at the ALP conference a shift from hot air and rhetoric to their first piece of black-letter policy. We saw them move away from the rivers of milk and honey and the endless discussion of warmth and light to put out a policy. What was it? An industrial relations policy. Was it going to build productivity? I think not. Was it going to take this country forward? I think not. The first piece of black-letter policy that they brought out did not take this country forward but, in fact, took it back some 20 years. We got to the point where Labor were going to produce this piece of policy that would bring us back to the great old days of centralised wage fixing. They were going to make reforms they were going to turn back AWAs. We know—and I see the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations at the table, and he certainly knows—that AWAs provide more flexibility for employers to come up with arrangements with their employees to maximise the production and productivity of this country. And to take away a major element of the growth of this nation, through taking away AWAs, can hardly be setting up this country for growth and taking this country forward.

We saw the folly in Labor’s first venture into policy when they had to review their own policy some five times within 10 days. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition must be embarrassed by what is considered by most commentators as an absolutely woeful foray into detailed policy. The government believes that greater flexibility is greater productivity, but Labor want to introduce union rule by good old team ACTU, that great bastion of flexibility. If you want to look at productivity you have to look no further than the commercial building industry, where we hear of reductions in cost in commercial building of some 20 to 30 per cent through fewer industrial disputes, through less intimidation and thuggery on work sites and through improved work practices.

What is Labor’s response to this improved flexibility, improved productivity and reduced cost on commercial building sites? They want to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission. They want to go back to good old team ACTU. Bring back union thuggery, revitalise union power: ‘We want to have the crane drivers running the construction sites again, deciding what goes up the building and what comes down. We want to have the crane drivers holding up the job, costing tens of thousands of dollars in prolongation costs.’ That is the response of the Labor Party to improved productivity that has been brought about by these sorts of changes. It is the peak of hypocrisy for Labor to talk of productivity growth, when the first policy that they bring out takes this country back 20 years.

This budget has introduced a range of measures that will drive this country forward. This government is very much on the leading edge of improved productivity. You are a very backward-looking opposition. You have no real solutions, apart from hot air and rhetoric. We have seen you on climate change. It is all warm and fuzzy, but there is nothing beneath that never-ending rhetoric that you put out. This government is taking this country forward in an economically responsible way and the people of Australia see through your—

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