Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today we heard the Leader of the Opposition—and I am advised that, at last check, he is still the Leader of the Opposition—making unqualified, inaccurate and hypocritical statements about the state of the Australian economy. If he wants to talk about a loss of confidence then let’s talk about a loss of confidence. The greatest loss of confidence happened in November last year when there was an absolute collapse in voters’ confidence in the former Howard government. There was a collapse in the former government’s ability to take this country forward in a fast-changing and challenging world. The voting population said quite simply that the last government—in terms of broadband, workplace laws and climate change—simply were not up to it. That is where we have seen the greatest collapse in confidence in the last 12 months.

We all remember the former Prime Minister, the former member for Bennelong, telling everyone that Australian working families had never been better off. The member for Bradfield, the current opposition leader, was using those tactics again today in the vain hope that people would somehow forget the absolute hubris that was displayed when the Liberal Party were last in government. Those on the other side of the House think that they are the word on economic management and that Australia cannot do without them. The truth is: we can do without them and we are moving ahead confidently without them. Our government are confidently putting into place measures to fight the 16-year high inflation levels left by the Liberal-National coalition. Our budget, which the opposition seeks to hamper and block for the sake of hampering and blocking, contains a raft of actions to strengthen the economy and to adapt it to the fast-changing world. We are putting money into education and making sure we improve our health system and our building infrastructure—something that the former government completely neglected over the last 12 years. These are things that the budget, delivered in May, is all about.

One of the cornerstones of responsible economic management is to have a responsible budget. If we are talking about confidence in the Australian economy, what do you think? Is it a $3.7 billion black hole or is it a $6.1 billion black hole? We are not quite sure where the opposition are at the moment in terms of trying to wreck the responsible budget that was brought down earlier this year. Does the Leader of the Opposition, or perhaps the member for Wentworth, really think that driving a Ferrari through a responsible budget will make our economic position any better? You will never hear us, on this side of the House, say that Australian working families have never been better off. We understand that working families are doing it tough. That is why, in this budget, we put forward a $55 billion package to assist those who are doing it tough—be they pensioners with the utilities allowance, be they working families with tax cuts, or be they people with children in child care. We also made sure that we had a budget surplus of $22 billion, because we on this side of the House recognise that inflation is the real evil. Inflation is the real enemy for working families and for people on fixed incomes, and we need to fight inflation by making sure that we have a responsible budget.

If the opposition think that Australians were better off under Work Choices and under a government that ignored 12 warnings from the Reserve Bank about high inflation, then there are serious problems with delusion on the other side. Attacking working families’ rights does not make for a better Australia. There is a lot of hypocrisy coming from the opposition benches, and we have had three great examples of it this afternoon. The opposition spent all year attacking the government, saying that we were talking down the economy. But what is this MPI about if it is not about attacking the economy and trying to talk it down? We heard last night on Four Corners the member for Wentworth being quoted as saying the Liberal Party has become a zoo. When I look opposite, I can see plenty of mountain goats, maybe a few snakes and the odd zebra. I actually hate to speculate who the head baboon may be, but let me say on behalf of the non-zoo side of parliament: we will continue to run a prosperous economy with the needs and aspirations of working families at the heart of our approach. In a time of global economic uncertainty, we need a measured approach. We need tough decision makers, not grandstanders. We need responsible managers, not irresponsible blockers of budgets.

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