Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have to admit that when I saw the terms for the MPI moved by the opposition this morning I had to check the date, as I thought it was April Fool’s Day and someone was having a lend of me. Here we have a budget that reflects the policy successes of the past 18 months, reflects that the economy is in recovery and builds on these successes to secure our economic future, and the opposition moves this motion in these terms. They must be kidding themselves.

Look at what has actually happened over the course of the last year. We come to this debate from a period of severe economic difficulty across the globe. Many OECD countries have fallen into recession as a result of the global financial crisis. The GFC has cost many countries a considerable number of jobs and has provided a severe dent for their long-term economic sustainability. Just last year the IMF forecasted that the Australian economy would contract by 1.4 per cent in 2009. But, as a result of the stimulus package put in place by the government in the last budget, the Australian economy actually grew by 1.4 per cent across 2009. That growth has not happened by accident. It has been on the back of the stimulus and on the back of the hard work of local communities and employers keeping people in work. Had we followed the opposition’s advice—which in essence was to do nothing—we would be in recession today and thousands of people would be out of work. We now find ourselves in a position where the Australian economy has performed where other countries have not. Thankfully, because of the Rudd government’s economic management, we are now in a strong position to move forward.

The government understands that, while we may have proven resilient throughout the global financial crisis, we now need to use this opportunity to set our economy up for the future—not throw away opportunities as happened under the Howard government. When we came to government the economy was facing significant capacity constraints, through lack of investment by the previous government in infrastructure, skills and training. The previous government had failed to invest in those areas to drive the productivity and future growth of the economy.

The government used the opportunity of the economic stimulus in last year’s budget to try and turn this around so that, as the economy recovered from the global financial crisis, we would be in a stronger position to grow. This budget seeks to build on that investment. Firstly, there is our commitment to keeping our finances strong. The government took action to protect jobs during the global financial crisis, and we now plan to protect and create jobs into the future by securing our economic position. Our strong financial discipline, as shown in this budget, ensures we get back to surplus in three years—three years earlier than predicted, and ahead of every major advanced economy. While other advanced economies have faced recession, subsequent job losses and longterm deficits, Australia has avoided a recession, created 225,000 jobs and will return the budget to surplus earlier.

It is no secret that our population is ageing and the cost of health is rising. We have recognised the challenges that this poses for our nation, and that is why the Rudd government has focused on health and hospital reform. This budget supports our National Health and Hospitals Network by further delivering $2.2 billion of investment into health over the next four years. We have worked hard to reform and invest in our health system because we know how important this is for the longterm sustainability of the healthcare system.

The 2010-11 budget also addresses the cost-of-living pressures for families. It is Australian families that have worked so hard in the wake of the global financial crisis, and it is Australian families that are now being rewarded for their hard work. The government is supporting families with a new round of personal tax cuts from 1 July 2010. This is the third round of tax cuts in the three years of this government. The budget also addresses our actions towards improving Australia’s economic capacity. I am delighted that this budget invests significantly in skills and infrastructure, with a $661 million investment to help people boost their qualifications by taking part in some 40,000 additional training places and support for 22,500 new apprentices, which builds on the Apprentice Kickstart program. We have also expanded on our nation-building agenda by continuing our commitment to local roads and infrastructure.

With this budget we have acted to create jobs, to fund and reform our health and hospital system, to save and bring us back to surplus early, to invest in infrastructure and build our nation’s capacity, and to boost renewable energy and tackle climate change. This budget is all about taking advantage of our strong economic position and setting our nation up for the future.

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