Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Western and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in response to this matter of public importance raised by the shadow minister for small business. It is a matter of public importance, and I thank him for raising this debate. It is important that we discuss matters of important public policy and it is especially important that those opposite address significant matters of economic policy and that it be done seriously and in a sober way. I think a hallmark of this shadow minister is that he does approach his work so seriously. It is in many ways an adornment to the opposition that we have a shadow minister who raises these issues in such a way so that they can be taken seriously. I know that the member for Dunkley takes these matters seriously, and he should be taken seriously by his own party.

It is a great pity that not all of those opposite take matters of economic policy so seriously. It is a great policy flaw of those opposite that they do not take the shadow minister for small business too seriously. How could they? In the course of the last five years we have seen the once-great Liberal Party, the home of conservative policy making, shattered to the point where Barnaby Joyce is now their spokesperson for finance—shattered to the point where your economic credibility is not just in tatters; it is represented by a shadow minister who brings nothing but a sense of humour, joke and shame to the serious business of economic commentary. Not so the shadow minister for small business. He has quite appropriately addressed those matters that are of concern to small businesses.

When I talk to small businesses in my electorate, they have a slightly different take; and that is legitimate because down my way the impact of the global financial crisis could have been absolutely devastating. The federal government put in place a set of fiscal measures supported by the Reserve Bank and supported by the Reserve Bank Governor which supported jobs and supported our local economy. These measures supported jobs for local contractors; they supported jobs for local tradespeople such as plumbers, carpenters, bricklayers and people who now work building our schools, building our roads and building our hospitals. These people are now able again, with great certainty, to build their businesses in the face of what would have been crushing uncertainty.

That crushing uncertainty is extremely important for us to contemplate because that crushing uncertainty of the global financial crisis is something that those opposite at times seek to take advantage of. At a time of uncertainty created by collapsing global financial markets, uncertainty created by collapsing banking systems—when the world’s great banks collapsed, when the world’s great private enterprise manufacturing organisations collapsed and when the world’s great economies suffered from unemployment increasing at the rate of hundreds of thousands per week—Barnaby Joyce became the shadow minister for finance. Senator Joyce has one important qualification in becoming the shadow minister for finance—that is, he is a National Party senator.

I think those opposite—and there are members opposite who are deeply thoughtful people—should think about the following. They should think about the fact that the National Party in 1996 had 16 members in this place—16 members making a contribution and seeking to define public policy and to support regional Australian communities. By 2001 there were 13 National Party members of parliament. Following a period of incredible fiscal irresponsibility, following a period of reckless spending, by 2004 there were 14 National Party members in this place. At the time of the federal election in 2007 there were 10 National Party members in this place. Today there are nine. With that track record of dwindling public support, with that track record of a dwindling number of members of parliament and with that track record of clearly being incapable of representing their constituency appropriately, the National Party are handed the great prize of the finance portfolio. This great prize for all aspiring politicians with an economic bent is a portfolio to be taken very seriously.

I follow today in this debate the speech given by the Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy. He began his career in this place as an economic adviser to Prime Minister Hawke. He was at that stage a serious young economist and he was taken seriously by the Prime Minister of the day. He was then the senior adviser to the Minister for Resources and Energy. He helped define, describe and implement the petroleum resource rent tax. This is a guy who then went on to a senior role in the public service in the state of Queensland. This is a guy who entered this place with a serious background in and with a credible knowledge of the economy, finance and public finances that sees him now being the minister for small business.

As I said at the start of my remarks, it is encouraging that the shadow minister for small business should put this motion on the Notice Paper and have it debated properly and appropriately. It is unfortunate that behind him the clowns in the shadow cabinet and the clowns of the National Party continue to bring nothing but scorn and shame upon the opposition and the way in which it prosecutes its economic debates. Why is this important? It is important because, as we all know, what we do in this place sets the tone and tenor for how our nation responds to important issues of the day. By that I mean that when we talk seriously about economics people take it seriously. When Senator Joyce speaks of the economy people are aghast. It is not as if he were an essential choice to be the shadow minister for finance, but he was the choice of those opposite. He is a reckless choice. He is a choice who places on the public record comments such as ‘we are going into hock to our eyeballs to people overseas’. He said:

You have got to ask the question, how far into debt do you want to go? We are getting to a point where we can’t repay it …

What do we believe those overseas who watch our country and who listen to our senior politicians will take away from such comments? What we know they will take away from such comments is that Senator Joyce is a clown. What he would like them to take from those comments is that our nation’s finances are in peril. What he would like them to take from such comments is that our nation’s finances are unstable. What he would like to see happen is a substantial international crisis—damaging our currency, damaging our terms of trade, throwing people into unemployment, damaging small business and causing the very harm that the shadow minister for small business would like to avoid. What is the shadow minister doing about it? He is the front man—the straight man—for the stooge. It is not good enough to turn up in this place making serious arguments but actually providing the cover, being the stooge, for the fool who continually attempts to drag down the Australian economy and continually attempts to bring nothing but disaster upon the Australian economy—because that is the only way we can interpret his public comments that attack foreign investment in our country, his public comments that attack foreign investment in our resources economy and his public comments which go to the core of damaging the lifeline which our economy has in creating jobs and in creating a future for our children and for our businesses, large and small.

It is not good enough just to turn up in this place with a plausible MPI and to argue that with great coherence and eloquence. It is important also to get your own house in order, to get an economic debate happening within your own party which is both responsible and measures up to the heritage of the Liberal Party and not the lunacy of the dwindling sideshow of the National Party—the tail wagging the dog, the tail telling the dog what economic policy it will have and bringing nothing but embarrassment upon those opposite. (Time expired)

See this speech in context