Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think it is important to look at the evidence, because there are some warnings in the RBA's evidence that they presented to us. There will always be those who use a crisis to further their own agendas, and this government has used the cover of the GFC to continue its large spending program and to introduce new taxes. The government has already gone beyond its mandate at the last election and significantly reregulated the labour market in a way which will mute our competitiveness and jobs growth over time. The warnings are such that we need to be concentrating on a couple of key points, and they are these: the cost of living for Australian families; the danger of inflation as restated in the latest monetary statement; our two-speed economy and the challenges that poses; the sustainability of the resources boom and our reliance on China; the challenge of a volatile Australian dollar; capacity constraints; and the need to focus on improving the nation's long-run productive capacity, on which this budget has not done terribly much. The government needs to recommit to the economic fundamentals: sound budget settings, a prudent debt position and a transparent and well-managed financial system. I look forward to the next opportunity to hear from the Reserve Bank, in August. Before I conclude, I would like to add some remarks to those of my colleagues presented earlier as to the outgoing members of the RBA board, Donald McGauchie and Warwick McKibbin. We do appreciate the incredibly valuable service that they have provided to the RBA. We appreciate the expertise that they have provided for the good of the Australian people in developing sound monetary policy settings and we look forward to their contribution in other ways through other forums that no doubt they will now participate in. We thank them.

Debate adjourned.

Main Committee adjourned at 21:24

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