Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Finance Minister on Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I hear the member for Bowman now getting stuck into the ratings agencies. Yet, it was just a moment ago that the shadow Treasurer was pointing out that Australia remains AAA rated—the highest in the world. I point out that Australia’s debt will be seven times lower than that of any of the major advanced economies—seven times lower. The global recession has caused government budgets around the world to go into deficit and here in Australia it has ripped off $210 billion from the Australian budget, which is about $1 in every $5 of taxation revenue. Of course in those circumstances a budget will go into deficit—of course it will.

Another major fact is that, if Australia did not have a budget deficit and if the government did not step in to fill the gap left by the private sector, we would have a deeper recession, slower recovery and hundreds of thousands more Australians out of work. Indeed it has been estimated by Treasury that about 210,000 more Australians would be out work if it were not for the active involvement of the Rudd government in managing the economy.

The truth is that the Liberals are running another dishonest scare campaign on deficit and debt. But when they are actually pressed they admit that they would do the same thing. The shadow Treasurer, when he was pressed on this point, said: ‘It would be a lot less than what Labor is doing. It would be at least $25 billion less.’ So he is arguing that instead of $188 billion, it would be around $150-odd billion debt that the coalition would have. But when the opposition leader was pressed on this the journalist asked him: ‘What does the coalition regard as an acceptable level of debt?’ he said—and this is a beauty:

Well, the level of debt should be no more than is absolutely necessary.

That is a profound statement, isn’t it? The journalist said: ‘What then?’ and he said:

Well, it’s not a question of a number.

So they actually do not have a very different or any different position from the Rudd Labor government’s position on debt. They simply want to run a scare campaign—on the day when two major economic reports have been released. One is the OECD Economic Outlook, which says that in 2009 it expects Australia’s economy to contract by 0.4 per cent, yet other major advanced countries will contract by 4.1 per cent—0.4 per cent for Australia, 4.1 per cent other major advanced countries. The second is the consultation report released by the International Monetary Fund, which says:

We welcome the quick implementation of targeted and temporary fiscal stimulus.

It goes on to say:

The government’s commitment to return to surpluses and achieve a positive budget balance on average over the medium term is commendable. Few other advanced countries have adopted such a clear commitment.

There is an endorsement of the government’s economic strategy, of the government’s fiscal strategy, by both the OECD and the International Monetary Fund. And, hot off the press today, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry put out a supporting press release entitled ‘Stimulus measures are helping business in a difficult trading environment’.

This MPI is just another example of a dishonest scare campaign—this one on debt—by the coalition. The fact is that, when I go around Australia, small business owners tell me how important they regard confidence in the economic outlook to be in sustaining their businesses during these challenging economic times. The Rudd government understand the importance of confidence, and that is why we are talking the economy up.

Yesterday the Australian Retailers Association’s June index showed a 24 per cent jump in confidence among small and medium enterprise retailers over the past quarter—a 24 per cent jump in confidence. The Sensis Consumer report says ‘Australian consumer confidence has jumped to a 15-month high’, rising by a record 10 percentage points during the quarter. Well, that is good news, but you would not think so if you were listening to the coalition because yet again the opposition are intent on talking the economy down. They have been scaring people about their job prospects for their own base, opportunistic political purposes. The shadow Treasurer, who just spoke, declared in parliament on 12 March:

… 80,000 Australians have lost their jobs in the last two months …

The truth is that, at that time, far from 80,000 jobs having been lost, 2,000 extra jobs had been created. Now, we are concerned about the economic outlook, we are concerned about the job outlook, but it does not do Australia, or the unemployed or small business any good to have the shadow Treasurer misrepresenting the jobs figures for the base political purposes of the coalition. It has suited the coalition to engage in this fear campaign and talk the economy and the jobs situation down, promoting fear to smash consumer confidence and drive small businesses to the wall. It has suited the coalition to do that.

The truth is—again, far from 80,000 jobs having been lost—employment has grown by 35,000. That is a 35,000 increase in employment. On the day that the national accounts were released for the March quarter, showing that the Australian economy had grown—that it was one of only two advanced economies that actually grew in the March quarter—what happened? What happened on that day when the good figures came out? The coalition switched its tactics because it could not continue with its fear campaign any longer. So it switched its tactics from fear to smear.

The fact is that, in the last few weeks, the opposition leader has been promoting a false email that he hoped would be a dirty little shortcut to the Lodge. He sought to smear the Prime Minister over the government’s support for struggling car dealerships. As for policy development, the opposition leader has relegated that to the backbench. You know who he has appointed to be the policy supremo? The co-author of Work Choices, the member for Menzies. He took that job off the Deputy Leader of the Opposition because every idea she came up with he felt he had read somewhere before. So low a priority has the opposition leader assigned to policy development that he has consigned responsibility for it to the backbench. This is extraordinary—policy development goes to the coalition backbench, freeing up the frontbench to concentrate on the opposition leader’s No. 1 priority: to smear the government. That is what has been happening all week when we could have been engaged in the great debates about the economy, immigration or the emissions trading scheme. But, no, they would not do that! My advice to the opposition leader is to abandon his dirty little smear campaign and take an interest in the hard policy work of federal politics. The opposition will never become competitive if they do not do the policy work.

I also say to the member for Bradfield and the member for Higgins that the door is wide open to one of them becoming the Colin Barnett of the Australian parliament. Colin Barnett was able to do it. He said: ‘I’m not running for preselection anymore.’ Someone was actually preselected in his place; I think they ended up in the upper house in a deal. At the last moment, when Colin Barnett realised that this was his chance, that he might be able to do something constructive, what did he do? He said, ‘Well, I am interested,’ and he became the Premier. I know that if the member for Bradfield were to reconsider, he could become the Colin Barnett of the Australian parliament. The member for Higgins is not too late. He said he was not going to renominate. He can renominate and he can become the Colin Barnett of the Australian parliament. Come on down, Member for Bradfield; come on down, Member for Higgins; and put this useless, hopeless opposition leader out of his misery. I say to the opposition leader: he tried fear, he moved to smear and now he should just disappear.

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