Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I apologise. It goes further than this. Since then we have had senior member after senior member of the coalition come out and indicate very clearly and loudly to the Australian community that Work Choices is not in fact dead. Perhaps the name is dead, but the policy is still alive and well. So we know that if they return to this side of the parliament they will bring back Work Choices and they will increase the cost of living pressures on working families throughout this nation.

We have also had an enormous amount of commentary from members of the coalition about electricity prices. I want to debunk this myth. It is very clear that electricity prices have been rising across this nation because of the failure of those on the other side to pass the necessary legislation to put a price on carbon, which has led to a freeze in investment across the electricity sector. That is the reality. We also know that demand for electricity has been increasing over the last few years as people take advantage of modern technologies like air conditioning. Again, it is their policy of resisting putting a price on carbon that is leading to rising cost-of-living pressures for many working families across this nation.

If the coalition want to be serious about easing the cost-of-living pressures that many working families are experiencing then they need to work with the government and the crossbenchers in this parliament to put a price on carbon so that we can start to address the issues in that part of the economy and alleviate the cost-of-living pressures which every Australian household is subject to. I urge them to revise their position on that and start working with all members of this place to address that issue.

I want to compare another of their policies with ours. The National Broadband Network is a very significant piece of economic infrastructure that will enable us to advance and grow our economy in a very, very substantial way. Let us look at the coalition’s position on this. The coalition’s position is to frustrate. Their position is to come up with a new policy every second day of the week. Let us look at some commentary from others on this. The OECD, a highly esteemed organisation, have indicated very clearly that a national broadband network will enable us to grow our economy and increase our productive capacity—and they have written on that. Again, I urge the coalition to get out of the way, start working with the government and enable us to deploy the National Broadband Network as effectively and efficiently as we can. We also know from various studies that have been undertaken that the implementation of a wide-scale broadband network across this nation could assist our economy to the tune of $2 billion to $4 billion a year. Of course, that will create jobs, increase the productive capacity of our economy and alleviate the cost-of-living pressures that this country is currently facing. The government have a raft of other policies to help many young people in terms of the cost of living. I would like to highlight to the House our various housing affordability programs that enable young people to enter the housing market and enable young people to work in the building industry.

Also, let us look at some of the other things that this government have done to address the cost-of-living pressures. The first is making sure that people have work. Over the last few years the Australian economy has gone through the global financial crisis. Of course, this government put in place a stimulus package that helped protect our economy and keep people in the workforce, particularly those in the building sector. In an area like mine in the southern suburbs of Geelong, construction is a vital part of our local economy. Those on the other side opposed the stimulus package. If you want to respond to cost-of-living pressures, the best thing you can do is keep people in work. That is something those on the other side failed to recognise.

In conclusion, I note that the Treasurer released a media statement today which looks at the September quarter’s inflation rate. It is fair to say that the efforts of this government over the last few years have ensured that the CPI has remained as close as possible to the two to three per cent target band set by the Reserve Bank. Again, that is about reducing cost-of-living pressures on working families.

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