David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Moncrieff knows that it is a sham of a policy. I do not believe he would ever have supported this if he was in any party room discussions that decided this because he knows it is a sham. It is an impost that has been imposed upon business, and arbitrarily on big business. Why? Because they had to find the money somehow.

The RSPT is about ensuring that all Australians secure the benefits of the exploitation of our mineral resources. They are a finite resource, they are non-renewable. They are the resources of the Australian people and once they are dug up and shipped off overseas, every time that happens a little bit of Australia’s natural wealth is exhausted, dissipated. That is why it is so important that we are able to capture some of the benefit of that and spread it right across the economy to ensure that communities such as mine in Western Sydney are able to get some of the benefit of that. When the Reserve Bank makes its judgments on whether or not to increase interest rates it takes into account the rapid growth, the capacity constraints and all of the challenges that occur in places like Western Australia and Queensland. Meanwhile, those small businesses in Western Sydney doing it tough get slugged with the same increases in interest rates where those capacity constraints lead to that effect.

What we say is, ‘Let’s share the benefits.’ Let us make sure that small businesses in communities like mine get a tax cut, get an opportunity to build on the investment allowance that we introduced during the global financial crisis and get a one-off deduction of up to $5,000 on their capital items that they purchase to invest in the future of their business.

We say that we should be investing in superannuation. I note that those on the other side always want to tell us, in the debate that we are having at the moment, that they support superannuation and that they think we should increase it but just not yet. With all of these things it is: ‘Just not yet.’ Their attitude is: ‘Yes, we believe in an adequate retirement savings, but most of the people that we represent, well, they can adequately provide for that above and beyond what might be compulsory contributions, so the rest of the unwashed masses should be happy with nine per cent until we determine at some future point that they might be entitled to it.’

They have never supported superannuation. They opposed it from the start and they continue to oppose it today. I want to quote the Leader of the Opposition because this particular quote puts in very stark contrast the position of this side, the government, and what we want to do for working people to boost their retirement savings, and the approach of the Leader of the Opposition. He said this in 1995, but I have to say that comments he has made more recently reinforce this view. In 1995 he said:

Compulsory superannuation is one of the biggest con jobs ever foisted by government on the Australian people.

It is not a con job; it is an initiative that has delivered one of the biggest funds management sectors in the world. There is $1.1 trillion under management. It has assisted in steering us through the global financial crisis. This is a great achievement this country has put in place and we want to build upon it. We want to make sure that everyday people in my community are able to retire with a decent standard of living.

I would like to conclude by saying that the trilogy response to the budget was like a play within a play within a play. But, when we finally drilled down to what the response was, it was about opposing the things that will build a more prosperous future for Australia, going into recovery. It was about opposing health spending—but are we surprised, from someone who has a record of ripping money out of the system? It was about opposing superannuation—but are we surprised, from someone who is on record as saying it is the biggest con job ever foisted on the Australian people? It is about opposing infrastructure spending—but are we surprised, from those who spent all of those years in government failing to invest in the infrastructure needs of this country and building capacity constraints that ultimately led to the interest rate increases that they told us we would never have because they said they would keep them at record lows. All they did was lie to the Australian people. They failed to tell the Australian people that the Reserve Bank makes these judgments independently. To the extent that they could contribute to taking the pressure off interest rates by investing in infrastructure, they were asleep at the wheel and failed.

We have someone who is also opposed to the resource super profits tax and opposed to putting a price on carbon. This is an opposition led by leader that is opposed—

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