Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

or the constituents of the seat of Curtin. I am sure they do not believe that. Let us remember those ads on TV during the campaign, when the Prime Minister, then the opposition leader, was talking about being a fiscal and economic conservative. Where was this fiscal and economic conservative during the years of the Howard government when we were trying to cut taxes, balance the budget and create jobs? Remember those millions of jobs we were able to find for Australians during the decade of the Howard government? Well, of course, the economic conservative that was Mr Rudd as per those TV ads was nowhere to be found.

Let me make it very clear once again: the people of Ryan do not believe that this country is better off. And I am starting to get a feeling that the people of Australia are coming to the conclusion that this country is not in fact as well off now as it was under the Howard government. What about the working families? Consumer confidence is falling, petrol prices are going up, grocery prices are going up and private health insurance is set to rise with the Rudd government’s outdated, ideological budget assault on the Medicare surcharge. What does this mean? It means that half a million Australians will go off private health insurance and join the public health queues all over Australia. Anyone from Queensland who is listening to this will surely know that the Queensland health system cannot afford to take any more, let alone thousands and thousands across the country—half a million, as the shadow minister for health reminded us in the parliament.

One of the major achievements of the Howard government was to tackle the massive $96 billion of Labor debt that was left to us—$96 billion, a monstrous amount of money that was left to the Howard government to pay off. I want to remind all those who sit on this side of the parliament, and certainly the constituents of Ryan, of this important figure: in 1996 every Australian taxpayer had some $9,000 owing as a result of Labor mismanagement in the Keating years. This is a disgrace, and it is something that we on this side of the parliament must never forget in reminding ourselves of the economic management capacity of Labor.

Australians today have a national government that is utterly and totally obsessed with the politics of symbolism and gesture. This is a government that cannot make its own decisions. This is a government that is utterly obsessed with committees, reviews, polls and myriad focus groups. People will remember what former Prime Minister Keating said about those opposite—that they could hardly get themselves out of bed without a focus group to tell them which side to get out of.

This MPI is very important, and very important to the people of Ryan, because it shines a light on this Labor government and how it is mismanaging the Australian economy. This Labor government does not have a clue about how to manage this economy. We hear a lot about global challenges, but really—(Time expired)

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