Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Melbourne Ports for his question. It is understandable that contemporary economic debate is very heavily focused on the global recession and the various initiatives the government has taken to deal with the consequences flowing from that—in particular the stimulus packages, the guarantees of bank activity, and things of that nature. I want to emphasise today that the government is resolutely and relentlessly focused on the longer term horizons for the future prosperity of the Australian economy. In this context there is one paramount objective, a single word that underlines everything that the government is seeking to do: productivity. Productivity is at the heart of the Rudd government’s agenda for the long-term future of the Australian economy.

Australia did pretty well on productivity throughout the 1990s as a result of many reforms that were put in place, mostly during the 1980s and in some cases early 1990s. Deregulation of the financial system; major reform of tariff protection; investment in education and research and development; export diversification; enterprise bargaining—a whole range of reforms were put in place and the Australian economy reaped the benefits. Over the five years to 1998-99, productivity grew on average by 3.3 per cent; in the subsequent five years to 2003-04 that average dropped to 2.2 per cent; and in the four years beyond that to 2007-08 that productivity growth average dropped to 1.1 per cent.

While the government is focused on sustaining jobs in the short term, all of our critical economic initiatives have been focused also on developing productivity growth into the medium and longer term. I refer to the broadband network proposal; greater investment in universities; reform of research and development allowances; investment in road, rail and port infrastructure—things such as the Hunter Expressway, the Oakajee Port project and regional rail in Victoria. All of these things will have a huge positive impact on productivity into the future for the Australian economy. We march towards a seamless national economy through regulatory reform, harmonisation of state based regulation and, of course, greater efficiency in government spending and government programs—these are all part of the total picture.

Yesterday I raised a leaflet that the Liberal Party put out about their economic position. I have to confess that I had cause to return to that leaflet this morning.

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