Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

This has everything to do with it because the speech of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition had nothing about the current government or the future. It was all about the past. They are stuck in the past.

Let us have a look at the legacy that they will be trumpeting at tonight’s function. On the economy: there were 10 rate increases in a row, which have cost Australian families on an average mortgage some $400 every month. That is Costello’s $400 charge on average Australians every month. They had the highest inflation levels in 16 years, but they just dismiss it. They say we talked up inflation, as if it were not real. It was the highest in 16 years. Productivity growth over the last five years of the Howard-Costello government had fallen to its lowest in more than 16 years. They ignored the Reserve Bank of Australia and its 20 warnings about capacity constraints in infrastructure and skills adding to inflation. Maybe they will be celebrating reckless spending. In the Liberal Party’s last budget there was some $40 billion in new spending but zero in savings. It was $40 billion out the door but nothing in the door. That was their strategy.

Most importantly tonight, they will be celebrating Work Choices. The party of Work Choices remains the party of extreme industrial relations and Work Choices—the Work Choices that allowed a slashing of penalty rates, the Work Choices that allowed a slashing of overtime payments, the Work Choices that allowed the slashing of holiday leave and the Work Choice that allowed people to be ripped off. It was un-Australian and took away the Australian ethos that bargaining occur in a fair way and that people have a right to join a trade union. Our workplace reforms are about workplace fairness but, on the other side of the House, they just cannot walk away from Work Choices, no matter how it was rejected by the Australian public.

Maybe they are celebrating how on broadband and modern communications they left Australia a backwater. They left us behind in the digital revolution and gave our competitors an enormous advantage. On health, maybe they are celebrating the billion dollars that they ripped out of the public health system in 2003. Maybe they will be celebrating water tonight. Maybe they will be saying, ‘Wasn’t it terrific that, during the 12 years of the Howard government, we didn’t put a single litre—not a drop of water—back into the Murray-Darling system in spite of the fact that it was in crisis?’ Or maybe they will be celebrating their legacy on education. The Liberals’ idea of an education revolution was giving every child access to a flagpole. That was their legacy. We believe that children should have access to a computer in school. We believe that every Australian, no matter how humble their origins, should have an opportunity to get a good education, but the only standards that those opposite ever raised were on flagpoles.

Of course, the legacy that will go down the generations in terms of missed opportunities is that of climate change, where for 12 years the Liberals denied its very existence. They failed to act. Not only were there dire consequences for the environment as a result of that but there were drastic consequences in terms of our economic competitiveness with our neighbours. We missed out on opportunities. We were the only country in the world that in the 21st century exported jobs in the solar energy industry overseas. Pacific Solar is based in Munich as a result of their policies. Solar manufacturing in Tasmania shut down as a result of their legacy. On all of these issues, whether you look at the specific policies or whether you look at education policy where federal government spending on education fell as a share of GDP from five per cent in 1995 to 4.3 per cent in 2004, they have a dreadful legacy. What are they doing now in opposition? They back big oil when it comes to a choice between consumers and big oil companies, they back the alcopop industry instead of taking action on binge drinking among young people and they back the private health insurance industry rather than backing working families.

Tonight they should be serving humble pie instead of lobster and caviar. They should be wearing hairshirts instead of tuxedos. They should be apologising to the Australian people instead of raising a toast to the former member for Bennelong, rejected so comprehensively by the Australian people that the Prime Minister lost his seat.

They should also be getting out of the way when it comes to the economic reform agenda of the Rudd government, because, in spite of the global credit crunch and slowing global growth, our economy is still growing solidly. Real GDP rose by 0.3 per cent in the June quarter and by 2.7 per cent over the year. Let us compare that with our competitors. Five of the world’s largest seven developed economies recorded zero or negative growth in the June quarter—that is, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and the UK. But the good news is that business investment continues to grow strongly, at four per cent in the June quarter and 9.9 per cent over the year.

The difficult conditions faced by the economy reinforce the importance of our budget, which produced a surplus not as an end in itself but a surplus with a purpose. In the short term, that surplus is putting downward pressure on inflation and interest rates. And what happened yesterday? Interest rates decreased. We are securing those long-term investment funds to deal with the infrastructure challenges of the nation. These are critical. But every time that they say no to one of these budget bills, they are saying no to proposals to unclog our ports. Every time they say no to a budget bill, they are saying no to proposals to ease urban congestion. Every time they say no to a budget bill, they are saying no to proposals for better public transport. You cannot blow a $6.2 billion hole in the budget and then say that you are acting responsibly.

Of course, it is not just the budget of the government that they are blowing a hole in—they are blowing a hole in the budget of working families with their irresponsible opposition to the changes to the Medicare surcharge. These changes, a day after working Australians got an average of $600 a year shaved off their mortgage, will add $1,200 in the lost opportunity of tax reduction that the government’s proposals would bring. Two income earners on $120,000 would be $1,200 worse off as a result of the political opportunism of those opposite—because it is all about them. That is why the deputy leader’s speech talked about the 12 golden years of the Howard government. That is why they are in denial. That is why they are so angry during question time. That is why they move points of order. That is why they cannot come to terms with the Australian public’s decision last year—because they are all obsessed with fighting over the spoils of opposition.

You can imagine the tactics discussions this morning: ‘The shadow treasurer got to give an MPI speech yesterday, so we better have the shadow minister for workplace relations, the deputy leader, have a turn today. We will have another candidate for the leadership up tomorrow.’ It is all about their internal politics. They have no coherent strategy whatsoever when it comes to the future of the economy, and that is why they have been rejected comprehensively not just by the Australian people but by organisations which historically have been a part of their base. As I go around the business community talking about this government’s infrastructure agenda, I get nothing but support because they know how critical this is to the nation’s future.

The other side’s position is pretty simple. We heard it from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition herself. They have nothing to say about the present or the future; they are simply obsessed with the past.

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