Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What will we make of this matter of public importance topic: ‘The failure of the government to provide a credible plan to ensure Australia’s economic recovery’? There is a bit of a clue there in the fact that it was put up by the National Party. As the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry illustrated very well in question time today, it could be opportunism—that is one possible answer—or it could be yet another example of the Nationals just not being able to keep up with the game. I say that because, if you had just walked into this House for the first time and seen this matter of public importance topic, you might reasonably infer from the topic that the opposition has a plan, in contrast to the government.

What the National Party seems to forget is that we have been here this whole time; we have been here for the last six months. We have been here while the opposition has voted against every element of the government’s stimulus packages that have been designed and put in place to protect Australia from the worst of the global economic recession. As we have heard from previous speakers, these are the worst economic circumstances we have seen in generations. The opposition have voted against projects to improve and modernise schools. They have voted against the boost of the first home owner grant, which supports thousands of jobs in the construction industry. They have voted against funding for roads and important safety improvements on our roads. They have voted against well-supported community projects.

How can we have a serious debate with them about charting a course to recovery when they have spent the last six months, first of all, failing to understand the nature of the problem, the scale and the causes of the global economic crisis and then the global recession that has followed? That was illustrated yet again in question time today with their line of questioning. These are economic circumstances that have flattened the economies of 22 out of the 23 most advanced economies in the world. Australia is not immune to that, and who could expect us to be? Secondly, in the last six months, the opposition have opportunistically and irresponsibly opposed every measure that we have put forward to boost activity in the economy, to protect jobs and to reverse the neglect of vital infrastructure that we saw under the previous government. Labor, on the other hand, is investing in infrastructure to prepare us for the upturn in the economy that we know will come.

The opposition talk about recovery, when all we have seen from them is a policy that would prolong and deepen the recession. Their shameful voting record in this House made it abundantly clear that their policy is to do absolutely nothing in the face of this recession. They cling to their free market ideology in preference to acting to boost activity and protect jobs. I am proud to say that we would never do that to the Australian people. We in the Labor Party would not let the market rip if it meant hundreds of thousands more people out of work.

I will not go through all of the measures in the two stimulus packages and the budget that the government has fought for and has put forward to protect the Australian economy from the worst of the global economic recession. My colleagues know what all those measures are because we stood up here and supported them. We debated in favour of them and we voted for them. I do not have to go through them all for opposition members, because they know them too, because they, on the other hand, spoke against them and voted against them. But I will just give some examples of things that are happening in my electorate that show very clearly that, unlike the opposition, we get it. We, in the Labor Party, get it. We get what our communities need to support jobs in our cities and towns.

I will give you just one example—the community infrastructure grants to local governments. This started out at $300 million and it is now $800 million worth of projects. I was at the showgrounds in Rockhampton a couple of weeks ago where the council was given $500,000 to install a full-scale commercial kitchen in one of the pavilions—an important asset for our community. I went to inspect it with the mayor and—I am not ashamed to say this in front of my colleagues—to get the obligatory photograph of what was happening and announce the funding. But—and this is my point—the real story was outside the pavilion where the building was going on. There were utes parked everywhere—local plasterers, painters, cabinet makers, plumbers, electricians. I can say to those tradespeople: ‘Don’t pack away your tool boxes. Fill up your utes with diesel and get over to the nearest school because we are just about to roll out millions of dollars of funding in building the education revolution in my electorate.’ (Time expired)

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