Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service and Integrity) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the shadow minister for his question but it is almost as though he missed the fact that there was a global financial crisis. It is almost as though, in his commentary, he ignores the reality of government measures to support employment across the economy. Employment was under threat in every single sector, from retailing through to construction, through to the agricultural sector and in vehicle building—in every way our economy was threatened and so the government put in place measures in the third quarter of 2008 and throughout 2009. All were opposed by those opposite, and opposed for reasons entirely of basic politics. That means that the successful defence of jobs and the support of economic activity is due entirely to the quick action of the Australian government. It has been action roundly applauded both internationally and, most importantly, in local communities where jobs have been preserved, businesses have been kept intact and families have not been ripped apart by the devastating impact of high unemployment. I think it is also important that the shadow minister concedes that the current federal government has a lower, smaller taxation footprint than did its predecessor. Indeed, it is a proud tradition of the Australian Labor Party that we are not a high-taxing government, in comparison to the government that we replaced in 2007. The taxation of our community of course is the removal of funds from our community for use by government, and it is important that that footprint be proportionate and appropriate. It is revealed in the budget figures, as I am sure the shadow minister has fully understood and his reflections here demonstrate, that the low-taxing Australian government is able to do that because of both the efficiency of the way in which the Australian government spends money and the effectiveness of the way in which the Australian government raises its revenue. It is inevitably the case that because of that the massive measures that had to be undertaken to protect employment, to ensure that industries and commerce continued to operate throughout the tough and dark years and the very tough and dark weeks and months of the global financial crisis, could be supported by the rapid action of the Australian government.

We also made clear that, as a consequence of the measures that we undertook, the government does see the budget moving into surplus. The government does see the importance of those measures. And the government, through its fiscal discipline, is moving to ensure that the budget returns to surplus as quickly as it possibly can. Why do we do that? We spend money when we have to and we do not spend money when we do not have to. We spend money in order to protect employment and to protect our community. As the honourable member well knows, we spent large amounts of that money building enduring community infrastructure: enduring infrastructure that will be used to educate future generations of Australians; enduring infrastructure that will provide hospitals and roads; enduring infrastructure—ports, rail infrastructure—to support economic activity. It was about providing infrastructure that will survive generations, but a decision which was taken in order to support employment, to support our economy and to support our community.

You asked the question, quite reasonably: how is the government able to maintain its extremely low taxation footprint? The answer to that, very clearly, is through tough fiscal discipline, through insight and thoughtfulness in the way in which the government structures its own spending programs and through ensuring that our taxation footprint remains smaller, that the tax paid by our community remains proportionately less, than it did in any year under the Howard government. It is an astonishing performance, a remarkable performance, but one that we will continue. (Time expired)

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