Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

If there is one thing that you can always guarantee about the opposition, living in denial, is that they will without exception walk both sides of the street. They will act for themselves, in their own interests, before the interests of the Australian community. They did it when they were in government and they continue to do it now that they are in opposition. They have learnt no lessons from their defeat at the last election. It is all about them and their politics; it is never about the public good or the national interest. We had 12 long years of that. That is exactly what this trumped up matter of public importance put forward today is all about. It is a weak and directionless attempt to smear the government, but instead what it does is create fear and doubt in the community, in the markets and in the banking sector. They are a weak opposition, divided in their own ranks. They are out of touch. They are out of control. They are walking both sides of the street.

They say on the one hand that they support Labor’s necessary and vital Economic Security Strategy, which is taking strong, clear and decisive action to fight the global financial crisis, while at the same time the Leader of the Opposition and the opposition themselves do everything they can to undermine the economic strategy that we put forward. Our Economic Security Strategy will deliver at a time of great need for ordinary Australians, pensioners and families. This is something which the opposition actually find really funny because, you see, it does not even factor in their thinking that you could possibly put forward an Economic Security Strategy that actually deals with the real economy—that is, people: families and pensioners. They are not in the game of delivering for ordinary Australians, they are not in the game of delivering for first home buyers and they are certainly not in the game of bringing on vital infrastructure spending that supports the real economy and people’s jobs and livelihoods. That is left up to us. That is why we have been elected and that is the job we are going to do.

In comparison, this is an opposition that does not know where it stands and that walks both sides of the street on economic policy, infrastructure policy, health policy and education policy. In fact, on any policy you will find opposition members walk on both sides of the street. Except for one. In fact the only policy which this opposition very clearly still stands for unambiguously and defends every single day is Work Choices. It is the only policy that opposition members are truly committed to retaining. Suddenly they go silent, because suddenly it dawns on them that that is exactly right. The only policy they unanimously, unambiguously defend in this place day in, day out is Work Choices. When it comes to every other policy, they all have separate views—whether it is the Leader of the National Party, whether it is the Leader of the Opposition or whether it is the backbenchers sniping from the back about their own views, they are all divided except for on one policy: Work Choices. That is, tragically for all Australians, an example of how walking on both sides of the street actually does some real harm; significant harm to the confidence of our economy and the confidence ordinary people have in what we are trying to do as a nation, as a country and as a parliament—that is what it should be—not just as a government.

The Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, has got it horribly wrong. He has got it wrong on the economics, he has got it wrong on the action needed, and he has got it wrong on what his role is in maintaining confidence and restoring confidence in the Australian economy. Again, he is just out of touch—he only thinks of himself; he does not understand what ordinary people need—and he is out of control, because he only thinks of what he needs to do to survive. He talks the economy down when all other leaders around the world are working together. That actually should be part of the responsibility and job of the Leader of the Opposition, but he does not do that. The central theme of the contribution the Leader of the Opposition made during the MPI debate today was he is right and everyone else is wrong—he is smarter than everyone else; everyone else should just get out of the way and let him get on with the business of what he thinks is his right and duty. He has got very little right at all, and I will come back to that point in a minute.

What is very clear is that we are facing a global economic slowdown and that will impact on Australia. The shadow minister thinks his only role is to flap his gums in this debate, but he offers no contribution. The only thing that he has actually got half right is that there is an economic slowdown and it will impact on Australia. I will come back to that because the Leader of the Opposition did make a specific comment on it. It is clear that we now have a recession in the US, and we also face the possibility of a recession in Europe. The global financial system is experiencing its most significant upheaval in living memory. What does the Leader of the Opposition say in his rhetoric? He says that it is all just hyped up—this is somehow a hyped-up myth; this is somehow not correct. It does not matter where you turn, you can go through a whole list of world leaders and economic experts who all agree on this. In one way or another, they all say the same thing: we are facing a global financial crisis not seen possibly in history, possibly in the last hundred years but certainly since World War II.

Australia is not immune from these developments, and that is the tragedy of this. But we are in a much better position to weather the storm than most other countries. Australians actually understand this. They are a bit smarter and more sophisticated than the opposition would give them credit for. Australians do understand this. They do not expect that their leaders in this country actually tell them that it is all just hyped up. They do not expect that they would actually work against government efforts to deliver key public policies and an Economic Security Strategy that will help them.

Our May budget forecast that problems abroad would slow the Australian economy and impact on employment, and we have taken steps which were reflected in a carefully structured, carefully measured and conservative budget where we protected the surplus. We did that, very importantly, because we suspected, while we did not know its size or the impact it would have, the crisis that was before us. That is why we have been able to do this. The good news for Australia is that we are in a better position than most other countries because over a long period of time Labor governments have better regulated this country and made those tough decisions. We are the ones who set up the superannuation structures which give Australia a unique position in the world in terms of national savings. It has always been Labor governments which have put in place the sort of governance arrangements, often argued against by the conservatives, that are now delivering that somewhat better position compared to others around the globe.

Our package does a number of things. It is clear, strong, decisive action introducing a $10.4 billion Economic Security Strategy that will strengthen Australia’s economy and will support Australian households during this global financial crisis. We needed to act. People expected us to act, and that is what we have done. But what the opposition do not understand is that people expect them to act as well—they actually expect them to act responsibly and they expect the Leader of the Opposition to act responsibly as well. He almost feigned that for a brief moment. For just a brief moment he came in and almost acted responsibly by saying that he would support Labor’s package. But since then he has spent his time, every breath he draws, undermining it, white-anting it and destroying the confidence that the Australian public has in what their government are doing to make sure that we can weather the storm before us. We are doing that not just in terms of the $10.4 billion package; we are doing it in terms of first home buyers and we are doing it in terms of infrastructure. We have always said that we are the party of nation building, and we are true to that commitment. We are not just committing the funds and the institutions that will deliver on this but also committing to bring those forward.

Just for moment let us compare one thing: the utter hypocrisy of the Leader of the Opposition and the opposition. When they were in government, we saw policy made on the run on a daily basis. There was no consultation with the community or anyone else. They operated directly against departmental advice, removing anyone who disagreed with them and silencing dissent. They spent any amount of money on a political outcome rather than a judgement. There is example after example of a do anything, say anything, spend anything reckless government—they were reckless when they were in government and they continue to be in opposition. The tragedy is that their single-minded mission to destroy the surplus has been a trick. Malcolm Turnbull has become the Australian Harry Houdini. Not only does he walk both sides of the street; he actually does a bit of a sleight of hand with both hands. With the left hand he steals the surplus and with the right he steals it all over again. If he had a third hand, he would try to steal the surplus three times, which would have left the Australian government and the Australian public— (Time expired)

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