Phillip Barresi (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Per year; that is right, member for Blair. So that is $8 billion a year in interest payments savings which can be used in other vital services. For the 10th successive year the budget is back in surplus to the tune of one per cent of our GDP—and this is at a time when the GDP itself, the size of the economic pie, has grown by over 50 per cent in the last 10 years. Unemployment has reached a 33-year low of 4.4 per cent—and we have done this without setting the political targets that were encouraged by the opposition. Rather than those sorts of stunts, we just got on with the job and we have seen the results that have taken place.

We have seen wages rise by over 19.2 per cent over the past 10 years. The number of small businesses—the confidence to set up a small business—is growing exponentially. These days the number of small business men, independent contractors and private entrepreneurs outstrips the number of union members. Only 15 per cent of the non-public sector workforce is now unionised. That reminds me to compare the 15 per cent of the non-public sector who are unionised with the 100 per cent of those who sit opposite the Treasury bench in this chamber who are unionised.

We also see 80 per cent of taxpayers now paying a maximum rate of 30c in the dollar in taxes. We see a budget that has delivered. We see a budget which has cut taxes and increased payments. If we recall budgets of the past, they were never ones of: ‘Will there be a tax cut? Will there be increased payments for pensioners or bonuses?’ They were always, ‘What is going to go up and by how much?’ We remember quite vividly the headlines where the government of the day was applauded for not raising taxes by as much as was anticipated rather than for talking about decreases.

These great achievements in the last 10 years point to one thing—that the enterprising spirit of Australia is alive and well and that individuals and families are looking to their financial future with more certainty and with greater opportunity. We have seen evidence of this in recent times when, according to an Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry survey, consumer and small business confidence reached an all-time high. This is not an accident. This really is businesses and consumers responding to the environment in which they now find themselves—an environment with low taxes, low interest rates and more flexibility which is responsive to their needs.

It is unfortunate to hear that the Australian Labor Party after 11 years in opposition continue to oppose, block and rubbish every government policy that has enabled these economic conditions to come about. Last week Labor leader, Kevin Rudd, said they were now economic conservatives. If this is the case, then why has opposition leader Mr Rudd and his colleagues blocked every major economic reform this government has introduced which has delivered our economic stability? This approach to our reforms has not changed and it continues today. The problem for opposition leader Mr Rudd is that, even if he truly believes he is an economic conservative, he has not behaved accordingly and, most importantly, the team behind him are definitely not economic conservatives. They are true to their beliefs, and we will see this coming forward in the next few months.

Heaven help the Australian nation if the Australian Labor Party get in, because the forces behind opposition leader Mr Rudd will certainly assert their authority. Who are those forces? We will see ex-union bosses Bill Shorten, Greg Combet, Douggie Cameron and Richard Miles being parachuted into safe ALP seats at the next election. The Labor Party now is more captive to its union boss than ever before. Why are these individuals and a whole lot of others coming? It is akin to that great slogan that was used by Don Chipp—‘To keep the bastards honest’. That is why they are coming—to make sure that their agenda, their policies and their ideology are pursued and there is no deviation by someone who calls himself an economic conservative. The pay-off for having this team in Canberra is a $100 million war chest to oppose the government’s workplace policies.

Labor’s policy inertia on the important issues facing our economy does not stop here. In the area of taxation, we see a blank sheet of paper instead of a real policy by those on the other side. The Australian Labor Party are now at the stage where they dare not mention the word ‘tax’ for fear of offending those aspirational voters they now wish to court. Yet the simple truth is, when it comes to the economy, the Labor Party just do not get it. On tax, Labor shadow Treasurer Wayne Swan has no policy and in a recent interview said the ALP would not present a tax policy before the election. I agree with the Treasurer’s comments on Alan Jones’s program last week that the member for Lilley’s, Wayne Swan’s, tax policy could only mean two things: that Labor think that the tax system is ideal as it is—pretty unlikely—or that they intend to get elected and change the tax system but do not want to tell the voters beforehand lest the voters do not like their plans. This policy is one which will not go unchallenged by those on this side. We will pursue them in this policy area right through to election time.

I did not come here today to simply talk about the opposition, although it is always quite fun.

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