Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, the Service Economy and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I am especially pleased there are so many members in the chamber for this matter of public importance, because it is important that we look at the Rudd Labor government’s inability to provide job security for working Australians, those Australians who the Rudd Labor government said were front and centre at its election in November last year. What is crystal clear is that in the period since the Rudd Labor government was elected we have seen that the rhetoric has fallen away, the empty promises have fallen away, and what the Australian people have been left with is a government that is directionless when it comes to providing job security for Australians.

There was one fundamental promise that the Howard government gave when it was in office, and that promise was to ensure that unemployment would be driven down. Fundamentally, the coalition took the view that there was one core principle that the coalition could always be counted on to deliver—and that was lower unemployment. In fact, thanks to the policies of the Howard government, we saw a 33-year record low of unemployment. It had been 33 years since the Australian people had seen unemployment reach levels as low as they did under the Howard government. And it was no thanks to the Labor Party, no thanks at all.

On every key reform that was fundamental to ensuring that we brought down unemployment, we knew one thing from the Labor Party, and that was opposition, opposition, opposition. It was on every key reform, and we remember because we are rapidly approaching ‘fundamental injustice day’. We all remember ‘fundamental injustice day’. That was the day our Prime Minister said would be the day that descended upon the Australian people as a result of our new tax system. That is Labor’s rhetoric: ‘fundamental injustice day’.

The coalition’s policy in this area—and, most importantly, the coalition’s results in this area—was to provide job security for Australians, because the coalition knew that with the record 33-year low level of unemployment we were providing more Australians than ever before the chance to pay off their home, the chance to pay off their car, the chance to make sure that their kids could get a decent education and the chance to pay for private medical insurance or use the public system. In so many areas, we knew that the most fundamental workplace right of all was the right to a job, and that is something that the Australian Labor Party just does not understand.

What we know is that the Australian Labor Party is more concerned about the rights of someone who is unemployed than they are about the rights of someone to actually get a job. We see Labor Party policy absolutely reflect this. In so many respects, we have seen this new government since its election completely lose its way. As a result, we are seeing that there are so many Australians who are already feeling the dead weight of the government’s actions. Most importantly, we see this dead weight in terms of the government’s forecasts.

What we saw over a long period was the unemployment trend going down. And what do we know? Within six months we have seen the government’s own budget forecasts actually forecasting 134,000 Australians to lose their jobs. That is the government’s record in six months in office—134,000 fewer working families as a result of your government policies. To compound the problem, what we know about the Rudd Labor government’s policies is that consumer confidence and small business confidence have absolutely collapsed. I am pleased that the Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy is at the table today, because he has got some explaining to do.

The minister has got some explaining to do for the policies that his government has implemented—the very policies that will put 134,000 Australians out of a job. That is the result of Labor Party policies. When members opposite sit in here on their cushy seats after they have made the transition from the trade union movement into politics, very few of them have any small business background. When they make that transition from their cushy trade union jobs to the cushy couches of government, what do we know? We know that the fundamental disconnect between their experience in the real world and Labor policy continues today. That is what we know about Labor Party policy.

There is a fundamental disconnection between the actual drivers of the economy and what drives the Labor Party. We on this side know what drives the Labor Party. It is the trade union movement. They are owned, they are operated and they are a franchise of the Australian trade union movement, and what we know is that in order to serve the interests of the trade union movement, unfortunately, there is going to be a bit of road kill on the way. And that road kill is the 134,000 Australians who this side of politics would always stand up for—those 134,000 Australians who we put into work and that you are now going to put out of work. They are who we will stand up for and they are the reason why we will make sure that our policies always create a positive small business environment.

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