Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

This expensive television advertising campaign was to proclaim that Labor was the party of economic conservatives. Even the Deputy Prime Minister—the secretary of the socialist forum, the old leftie from Victoria—actually came out and said that she was an economic conservative. She would have the Australian public believe that she rushed to university to join the Young Labor movement because it was the party of economic conservatives. What a joke! The public were then led to believe that the Rudd government would not be like the great economic vandals of the previous Labor governments under Whitlam and Keating. The public were led to believe that the Rudd government would not be like the incompetent do-nothing state Labor governments which have so undermined the strength of the states in this country.

It is safe to say that the Australian public were seriously misled. The Rudd government is in fact an old-style Labor government—anti-business, obsessed with the politics of envy, absolutely focused on spin and more concerned with ideology than the creation of opportunities and fairness for the Australian people. This is demonstrated by the actions of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, who were so intimidated by the record of the Howard government that they decided to trash that legacy as their first action after the election. That is the first thing that they did. And we had the reckless language used by the Treasurer, as the Leader of the Opposition said. The day before a meeting of the Reserve Bank, the Treasurer of this country was historically claiming that the inflation genie was out of the bottle, that inflation was out of control—and that had a profound impact on confidence in the leadership of this government.

Since the Rudd government came to power, business and consumer confidence has collapsed to lows not seen since the previous Labor government in the early 1990s. Declining confidence has been reflected in downturns in retail turnover, housing finance commitments, residential building approvals and demand for credit. There have also been large and well-publicised lay-offs from some larger companies and many others in manufacturing and financial services and from small business. Despite these signs of slowing growth, the fundamental strength of the Australian economy has continued due to the legacy of the Howard government. But this cannot be taken for granted—and it is the ongoing reckless language of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer that has the potential to cause further damage.

In recent weeks, the resilience in the labour market has looked increasingly shaky. The Reserve Bank’s most recent statement on monetary policy, released on 11 August, forecast employment growth of only 0.75 per cent over the next year—well below the long-term trend of 2.5 per cent—and the National Australia Bank expects employment growth to slow dramatically. Of most concern is that forecasts for rising unemployment are getting worse. The budget forecast 134,000 job losses in the next 12 months, yet the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations cannot or will not say that figure. She refuses to confirm her own budget papers that forecast 134,000 job losses within the next 12 months—the forecast that dare not speak its name. The Reserve Bank has since forecast an additional 100,000 job losses, and there are expectations that unemployment will rise from 3.9 per cent earlier this year to six per cent in the next two years.

Many Australians could be forgiven for believing that the Rudd government is on track to repeat the experience of the last Labor government, when unemployment reached 11 per cent and almost one million people were unemployed. So much for being heroes of the working class! Prime Minister Paul Keating presided over an economy that saw one million Australians out of work, and this government is on track to repeat that experience. The most recent Sensis consumer report revealed the increasing concerns of Australians about their financial future. In particular, the report’s author noted:

Unemployment has not been on the nation’s radar for some time, but since May, it has risen more than any issue …

This is the government’s own leading indicator of employment for September and this was released by the department of the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. It confirmedemployment prospects are worsening. In fact, the indicator has now fallen for eight consecutive months. The downward trajectory of the indicator has become more pronounced in recent months. The continued low unemployment rate is a testament to the resilience of the Australian economy but also to the resilience of the Australian labour market.

Before the election, Labor vowed to back the Liberal workplace relations reforms which had helped to deliver benefits such as low inflation and the lowest unemployment rate in more than 30 years. You will recall that Labor vowed to retain right-of-entry laws, secret ballots, prohibited content—all Howard government reforms that were designed to keep in check the job-destroying unfettered power of the unions. Today at the National Press Club the minister for workplace relations outlined how she intends to bring the unions back into as many workplaces as possible, hidden inside a trojan horse of so-called ‘workplace fairness’. The minister for workplace relations should be honest and admit that her plans are actually about the reintroduction of union power through pattern bargaining, giving unions the green light to freely enter any workplace and allowing content in agreements that will bring the unions back into every aspect of the workplace whether they are invited or not. This is about putting the unions in every negotiation in every workplace whether there are union members there or not.

The minister can scaremonger about Work Choices as much as she likes, but the truth is that Work Choices will be in operation for longer under the Rudd government than under the Howard government—and doesn’t the minister for workplace relations hate it when she is reminded of that! When the minister does finally achieve her ideological goal, it will be at the expense of Australian jobs and real wages. What is at stake was made clear a few months ago by the Reserve Bank governor, Glenn Stevens, who commented about why 1970s-style stagflation—high inflation and low growth—should not occur today in Australia. He said:

A key difference today, thus far, has been the behaviour of labour costs … If you go back to the mid-1970s, you had the government leading the charge in pushing wages up, you had a very different balance of power between the unions and business, a different quasi-judicial industrial relations system, and we had a serious wage-price problem back then. … We don’t have that at the moment, and we must make sure we don’t get it.

The government is very fond of talking about Reserve Bank warnings, but you are not going to hear them repeating this warning. The balance between employers and employees in the workplaces of Australia is what is now at stake. The importance of efficient, flexible labour markets in achieving macroeconomic goals has been made clear in a series of OECD economic surveys during the years of economic success unde the Howard government.

The coalition understood the central importance of workplace relations to the economic wellbeing of the country and the community. Real wages were increased by more than 20 per cent during the years of the Howard government. Inflation was kept between the band of two and three per cent as set by the Reserve Bank. During the years of the Hawke-Keating Labor governments, real wages fell by almost two per cent and inflation averaged more than six per cent. The very real danger, as the Rudd government winds back the gains and the benefits of the Howard years, is that we will enter into a wage inflation spiral the likes of which we have not seen since the last time Labor was in government. It is greatly concerning that the minister for worplace relations and her department have made it clear that, in the 10 months since she has been minister for workplace relations, no analysis has been undertaken on the effects of Labor’s workplace relations policy on unemployment, inflation or economic growth.

The minister is like the fabled ostrich: she is burying her head in the sand, hoping to avoid any uncomfortable truths from the world around her. The minister has been negligent in her fundamental duty to the Australian people, which is to ensure that there are as many job opportunities as possible. What we have seen with this government has been nothing about fairness— (Time expired)

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