David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be able to contribute to this debate about the management of the economy. The matter that has been raised by the member for North Sydney suggests that this government has not been capable in managing the economy; the facts tell a very different story. In fact, if we have a look at what has occurred over the last couple of years across the global economy we see that Australia stands out as one of the most outstanding success stories when it comes to economic management. I regularly host visits of individuals from all around the world, and when they come here they comment, almost universally, on how successful the economic management has been here in Australia through the troubled times of the global financial crisis.

To underline this point I will make a simple comparison of some figures. At the height of the global financial crisis, 30 million jobs were shed across the global economy; yet here in Australia we created over 700,000 jobs. We created over 700,000 jobs at a time when every other country was facing job losses. The initiatives that we put in place by acting decisively to stimulate the economy have been the difference. Those initiatives ensured that Australians were able to stay in employment through these difficult times.

We all know that the government has a very strong focus on jobs. When we talk about managing the economy, we talk about managing it for the many and not for the few. We talk about managing it so that working Australians continue to be in work. Had we adopted the so-called policy prescriptions of the opposition during the global financial crisis then lots of Australians—tens if not hundreds of thousands of Australians—would not have stayed in employment. The consequences of that would have been extremely detrimental to the national economy.

We all know that, when the debate in this place was occurring around the government's response to the global financial crisis, the Leader of the Opposition was not even in this chamber. Unlike most of his colleagues, he actually did not vote against the stimulus measures, because he failed to turn up to the chamber. We all recall the article in the Daily Telegraph that at great length identified the fact that the member for Warringah, before he was the Leader of the Opposition, did not even come into this chamber to vote; he slept through the vote. Is that the sort of person we want with their hands on the levers and the steering wheel of the national economy as we move into the next phase of economic development? Is that the person we want at the helm? He was asleep at the wheel when this government intervened to save all of those jobs.

Those on the other side seek to diminish the contribution of the government to the economy through the global financial crisis. They often say: 'It was not the government; it was the resources boom. That is all it was—the resources boom.' I am reminded of the comments that the then Secretary of the Treasury, Ken Henry, made to Senate estimates in May last year. He made the very valid point that if every sector across the Australian economy the Australian economy had shed jobs at that same rate as did the resources sector through the global financial crisis—and to recap for those who cannot recall, during the global financial crisis the mining industry shed 15 per cent of its jobs—the unemployment rate in Australia would have been 19 per cent. I would like to hear those who say the mining sector saved the Australian economy through the global financial crisis respond to that.

There are those who say that it was not just the mining sector; it was China. They say this as if to suggest that China was not around before this government came to power and that any of the revenue gains over the years which governments before us were able to achieve had nothing to do with China. All of a sudden China decided to industrialise when Labor came to power! They say that we only survived the global financial crisis as the economic success story we are because of China.

In the Leader of the Opposition's most recent pronouncements he said he has grave concerns about dealing with China. He thinks we need to be very cautious about a free trade agreement with China. In fact, I am sure his former leader, the former member for Bennelong, would be most concerned and disturbed to know that the very free trade negotiations he initiated back in 2005 have now become the source of such great concern to his old party. I think it is a further example of the complete lack of sensible economic thinking within the coalition at the moment.

You often hear those on the other side talk about taxation. We heard another bout of it from the member for North Sydney today. They say this government has introduced this tax and that tax: 'All they ever do is introduce new taxes.' Why would a government want to introduce taxes? Governments introduce taxes for various reasons. I would hazard a guess that some of the reasons we have introduced some of these initiatives might be the same reasons that the former government introduced all of the new taxes they chose to introduce, whether it be the sugar levy, the dairy levy, the tax on airfares after the Ansett collapse, the East Timor levy or the mother of all taxes they introduced: the goods and services tax. They come into this place and talk as though they are the only ones who ever cut taxes and we are the only ones who ever introduced them. They fail to acknowledge the fact that in our first three budgets we cut personal income tax by $47 billion. We have reduced personal income tax by $47 billion.

This is all a smokescreen to hide the real motives behind their decision to block and then repeal the mining tax. They are going to have to argue this in their communities. The Australian community is onboard with the mining tax. When I talk to people in the community, I find there is almost universal acceptance that this is what our nation requires. When BHP was announcing its record profits and when BlueScope Steel was laying off over 1,000 working Australians, most Australians could see that the nature of this patchwork economy meant that we needed to spread the benefits of the resources boom.

We need to ensure that all Australians get the benefit of the exploitation of our mineral resources. These are the resources we as Australian people own. As companies seek to exploit them to generate their own income and—as a result—national income, we need to ensure that the benefits are evenly spread. We are determined to do that. We are determined to do that to deliver a tax cut to small business, to reduce the company rate and to increase the ability of small businesses to instantly write off asset purchases of up to $5,000 and $6,000 to ensure that those purchasing motor vehicles are able to take an upfront deduction up to that amount.

We are also ensuring that working people are able to aspire to the retirement savings we all know they deserve. After toiling away for 40 years in the workforce, Australians expect that in retirement they will have a decent standard of living. We know that the compulsory superannuation levy at nine per cent will not deliver sufficient retirement savings; we want to make sure that all Australians are able to retire with a degree of comfort. These are measures that those on the other side oppose and will seek to repeal in government. They will increase taxes on small business. They will rip away superannuation for working Australians. They will give a massive windfall tax cut to the resource companies. That is their vision for the future. We are determined to build an economy that is resilient for the future, to tackle the challenge of an ageing population and to build the infrastructure that we need through a national broadband network. We are determined to ensure that our economy is a prosperous one and that the benefits of it are spread right across the economy. Most importantly, we want to make sure that working Australians get their fair share. It is all good and well for the big end of town to benefit; we want to make sure that working families and working Australians share in the fruits and the bounty of the prosperity that we will enjoy. (Time expired)

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