Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

because they know now that their costing of $15 million over the estimates is out by about $400 million. What does that say to the Australian people at the moment who are considering what a Labor government would mean to the economy? This should be a great demonstration to the Australian people that members of the Labor Party are still not ready to manage the Australian economy. They are $400 million out in this one measure alone over the estimates. That would put the Australian economy on a path to disaster. If people in the Australian business community want a demonstration of how bad Labor would be in the management of the Australian economy, then look no further than this measure.

We know that the member for Prospect, the member for Lilley and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition were in a mad panic when they put forward their industrial relations policy, which had been put together by the union bosses. We knew that they had this policy, this grand statement, put together by the union bosses—the puppeteers of the Labor Party, the people who would again be in charge of the Australian economy if Labor were returned to power in this country. They put together this business- and job-destroying industrial relations policy, which was rejected quite properly and soundly by business. They said: ‘This is a nonsense. The industrial relations policy of the Australian Labor Party, masterminded by the union bosses, the puppeteers of the Australian Labor Party, would destroy jobs. It would result in the same wrecking of the Australian economy that took place in the late eighties and early nineties.’

So that was the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the member for Prospect and the member for Lilley. Some people do not realise that the member for Lilley would be the Treasurer of this country in a Rudd Labor government. People need to think about that. People need to think about how bad that would be for the Australian economy, for Australian families and for Australian small business. It is demonstrations such as this, where they cannot properly cost these sorts of policies, that undermine the legitimacy of the economic credibility that they claim to have.

In the face of all this sound opposition from business about Labor’s industrial relations policy that would crush jobs, put people out of work and drive up interest rates, Labor had a mad run-around between them. The Labor think tank—the member for Prospect no doubt, and the member for Lilley, the shadow Treasurer—raced to the Leader of the Opposition and said: ‘Jeez, we’ve got a real problem. How are we going to get business back onside? What’s the measure that could bring business back onside? How can we try and show business that we’re not about destroying jobs and we’re not about destroying the economy?’ Let me tell the member for Prospect and those opposite that Australian business is smarter than you think.

Australian business knows that Labor would wreck the economy. It knows that this policy has been put up not because the Labor Party believe in this policy, not because they would want to commit $400 million over some of their social programs to this policy, but because they are trying to recover themselves with Australian business. The Labor Party know, as Australian business knows, that the Labor Party and their union bosses—80 per cent of people who now sit in the Labor Party are former union bosses or union hacks—are dangerous for the Australian economy. If we want to return to the days of industrial disputation, of business being destroyed, of small business having to sack people, of interest rates of 17 per cent—and up to 20 per cent—for families, which drove them out of their homes, then the Australian Labor Party are what we need to run the Australian economy. That is what the Labor Party are all about. They are dictated to, they are dominated by and they are answerable to the Australian union movement.

This stunt by the Australian Labor Party is to try to curry some favour with the business community. Put aside all of the rhetoric: Labor do not believe in creating jobs in the business community. When they were in government last, their policies demonstrated that clearly. This is nothing more than a shabby attempt to try to mend bridges with the Australian business community. Let me tell you privately: the Australian business community see straight through it. They know this is a sham. They know that, when the Charter of Budget Honesty reveals the true costing, Labor in government will walk away from this policy at a moment’s notice. I can promise the Australian people and the Australian business community that, when Labor have to properly cost this policy—when all these lunatic-Left people are running around as ministers in government—and they want to look at priorities in a Labor government, this will be the first policy that Labor would walk away from. That is because they costed it at $15 million a year. This policy was costed by Treasury—not by the Treasurer’s office, by me or by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer but by the same Treasury that is hailed by some members of the Labor opposition. The Treasury has provided the costing assumptions, and it is the Treasury whose costings the Labor Party will have to abide by.

Let me say to Australian business: when Labor realise the error of their ways—when they realise that this is not a $60 million project over the four years of the estimates but closer to a $400 million or $500 million measure—they will walk away from this in a heartbeat, because they are beholden to the union movement. The union movement destroys jobs in this country; it is not about creating opportunities for workers as the unions claim. The union bosses in the Labor Party sit along that front bench and they would sit around the cabinet table with Mr Rudd in a Labor government, and those that are out there believe in preserving jobs for union bosses. Their rhetoric is nothing to do with creating opportunities for Australians such as has been demonstrated by the economic performance of the government over the last 10 years. We have created opportunities for two million people to go into jobs. We have put real wage increases at greater levels than the negative levels they were at under the Labor Party. The Howard government, through our economic management, have been able to pay dividends to people in small business and to families. The Labor Party stands as shabby as ever, particularly on this measure. For those reasons, I commend this bill to the House.

Question put:

That the words proposed to be omitted (Mr Bowen’s amendment) stand part of the question.

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