Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Listen to the cheek of the contrived claims of the opposition about this side not having the confidence of the Australian people, just after the federal election when people made an emphatic choice that this side of the House has their confidence to run our $1.1 trillion economy. What fiscal irresponsibility when those opposite spent millions of dollars on advertising for Work Choices and hundreds of millions of dollars on regional rorts. Who can forget the Tumby Umby Creek that we spent millions of dollars clearing before it was subsequently cleared by rainfall? No wonder the excellent member for Grayndler, the Leader of the House, pointed out that we should be calling the National Audit Office ‘the Nationals Audit Office’. We ought to be going through every piece of expenditure of the previous government and seeing the gross irresponsibility in Work Choices, regional rorts and the fake technical colleges that were built around this country—the gross capital expenditure that was spent on them when they did not have any students.

Over the past few days the honourable member for Wentworth and the honourable member for Bradfield have sought to use this great forum in a cynical manner, asking questions of my colleague the Treasurer that do not address the economic issues that matter to ordinary Australians, using obscure formulas, such as NAIRU, which I understand the Governor of the Reserve Bank regards as surplus to requirements. The shadow Treasurer will no doubt accuse it of knowing nothing about monetary policy either. As ever, those opposite are doing nothing to either help or ease the growing burden of inflation impacting on ordinary people and their families. To deny that inflation as it currently stands is a problem—as the shadow Treasurer has said repeatedly—is something that I cannot believe.

On this side of the House we can only conclude that the member for Wentworth is more focused on a figure much closer to his heart, that of the Leader of the Opposition’s record-shattering nine per cent approval rating. Perhaps by understanding that inflation is being persistently forecast at the higher end, or exceeding the target band set by the Reserve Bank—as the member for Prospect has just explained—the Leader of the Opposition argues that lowering expectations should be taken more seriously. The member for Wentworth might be able to grasp the seriousness of the problem his party has unceremoniously dumped on working families.

The shadow Treasurer and his colleagues may in time even get through the first step on the road to fiscal policy rehabilitation. Hope is a wonderful thing. It is a feeling I commend to the House. Unlike those opposite, we are committed to dealing with the economic challenges facing Australia that the previous government washed its hands of after 11 long years, rather than revisionism writ large. Instead of the Costello cruise control, the Rudd government will, under the able management of the member for Lilley and the member for Melbourne, work to claw back the significant structural economic problems left virtually untouched by the Howard-Costello regime. Thanks in no small part to the previous government’s inaction, Australia is unique among large-scale exporters of minerals in maintaining not just a significant current account deficit but one that remains impervious to virtually unprecedented terms of trade as a result of the runaway expansion of China and the demand for our exports. With a current account deficit in the vicinity of $5 billion per month, the impact that such an imbalance has on both interest rates and a highly valued Australian dollar has helped to ensure not just that the inflation genie is out of the bottle but that it stays out.

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