Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to support the view that the government budget of last night helps secure Australia’s economic future, building on our previous actions. Last night’s budget aims, with responsible management, to halve peak debt and to get back in the black in three years—three years early.

Firstly, my case relies upon the fact that the details of the budget are good for ordinary people, with the tax cuts and key investments which have been spelt out. Secondly, many independent commentators have assessed last night’s budget, which has been put before the parliament, very positively. Thirdly, any fair-minded comparison with the rest of the world shows that that our actions are working well. The alternative solutions proposed by the opposition are both inconsistent and not in the national interest.

Every year with a budget is a tough year, and, with the global financial crisis, recent years have been tough and they have been messy. The Rudd government understand that we face an opposition that is hungry to sit where we sit and to have the power that we have, and they will not be too scrupulous about how they achieve that. I also acknowledge that, now that the luxury of watching the Liberal Party’s imbecilic leadership vaudeville show is over, the opposition will grit their teeth and unite behind the Leader of the Opposition because there is too much at stake for them not to. Malcolm Turnbull, the member for Wentworth, has been in the tent, has been out of the tent, has tried to pull the tent down and is now back in the tent. But I am sure that even he will pull his head in as the election approaches. They will throw every economic smear, every economic scare campaign and every economic label they can at us. I acknowledge they are led by a man with 20 years experience inside the Liberal Party, as a staffer, a minister, a confidante and a hatchet man of the former Prime Minister. He has been known to describe himself as the ideological love child of the member for Mackellar and the former Prime Minister.

Indeed, looking at economic strategies, I understand that in the film Back to the Future Marty McFly and the doc required a souped-up DeLorean sports car to travel back, whereas in this case the Leader of the Opposition simply did it by naming his shadow cabinet. I acknowledge that as part of their economic strategy they have exhumed the political careers of a number of people, probably to their own surprise. We need to remind the public of what this opposition stands for economically. We also need to remind the public that the government is the party of the big picture, the big idea and the big policy.

I believe that this budget passed last night demonstrates that we are not distracted by the 24-hour news cycle or the carping of commentators who would attack this government. Last night we announced major changes to the tax system. We will lower company tax for small business. We will raise retirement incomes for workers by increasing employer superannuation contributions to 12 per cent, and we will look after lower income earners with a $500 rebate. Superannuation was opposed by the conservatives when the last Labor government brought it in, and the rate remained stuck on nine per cent through the Howard years. Now there is progress in superannuation—the best and most sustainable way for Australians to fund their retirements.

We will also be changing the tax system so that Australians get a fair share of the profits from the development of our mineral resources—those resources which are our birthright as the lucky country. The $35 billion in revenue lost in the past decade as mining profits raced ahead of royalties paid will not be lost over the coming years. It will be contributed towards the infrastructure we need for our future, to helping lower tax rates, so ensuring that other parts of our diverse economy can in fact thrive.

I believe last night’s budget did demonstrate that we are the party of economic responsibility in the interests of ordinary Australians in Australia. We have aimed to end government debt by 2012-13. We will have better health with $2.2 billion for hospitals and the significant addition of skills training to make sure that our workforce is equipped to tackle new challenges and that economic recovery does not stall because of the skills shortage. Indeed, we have delivered on the tax cuts we promised and have also made it easier for people to claim a tax deduction with a tick-and-flick approach rather than the lengthy and laborious process that is currently in place. We are determined that people will get the opportunities they deserve. In particular, we are engaged—as I alluded to—in the largest reform of health since Medicare, trying to secure a sustainable future for public hospitals in primary care.

I acknowledge that the project is almost vertigo-inducing in its scope and ambition. It is a project that will affect and support every Australian who uses a hospital. Our skills policy will ensure that we have the right set of skills for people. But it is also easy, when we look at last night’s budget, to forget how far we have come economically in recent years, to forget how much has changed over the past two and a bit years since the Rudd government was elected and to forget what in fact has been achieved.

I believe that, when you look at the steps of our stimulus package and the support of our financial institutions, we have weathered in a far better capacity the economic storms that the rest of the world has experienced. All reasonable comparisons with other major advanced economies throughout the world demonstrate that the Australian economy is in good shape. This has occurred through a combination of factors, but there can be no doubt that the macroeconomic policies of the government in the past year and a half are part of the contribution towards the success of our economic performance compared with the other major developed economies with whom we trade. The fact that our debt as a proportion of GDP is so much smaller at 2.9 per cent than the 9.5 per cent average across our major advanced economic partners demonstrates how well we have been performing. The fact that unemployment, which is such an important issue, is so much lower on average than that of our economic partners demonstrates our ongoing commitment to making sure that fighting unemployment remains not just a priority but the outcome of our economic policies. Keeping people in jobs—supporting people in jobs—through the global financial crisis has in fact been one of the hallmarks of this successful government.

Third-party commentators—people who do not have a particular axe to grind for either the Liberal Party or the Labor Party or the country branch of the Liberal Party, the National Party—have made observations to which I would like to draw the attention of the House. Kyran Curry, from Standard and Poor’s, said:

The projected deficit and additional borrowings over the next three years did not alter the sound profile of Australia’s public finances, which remained the strongest of its peer group.

Robert Jeremenko, from the Taxation Institute of Australia, said last night:

The Taxation Institute welcomes the government’s positive steps towards simplifying tax time for millions of Australians. The government’s moves to introduce an optional $500 tax deduction for work related expenses and also managing tax affairs, phasing up to $1,000, is a great step that will vastly reduce compliance costs for millions of taxpayers.

Pauline Vamos, from the Association of Superannuation Funds, said last night:

By confirming their response to the Henry review, what the government has done is ensure that the majority of Australians will retire on an adequate and comfortable standard of living.

She also said that we have seen equity restored by allowing low-income earners a rebate in their contributions tax. From the Macquarie Group, Brian Redican said last night:

What’s positive is that they—

the government—

are allowing the improvement to flow through to the deficit rather than spending more, which is always a temptation in an election year.

This temptation, I sadly report, was not one which the now opposition could resist in the years that they were in government. To continue his quote:

That, in turn, means there’s less upward pressure on interest rates.

John Brogden, former New South Wales Liberal leader and now CEO of IFSA, said:

The policy announced by the government eight days ago is good for Australia and good for Australians.

This is referring to the superannuation changes. He also said:

It will deliver an extraordinary benefit to the economy, and there is no argument that it can’t be afforded by business.

John Brogden went on to say:

This is visionary policy. It is visionary for Australia’s retirement incomes, and it is visionary for the Australian economy.

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