Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Melbourne Ports for his question. We have in the last period seen Australia represented at four major international summits. Indeed, Australia was the only country to be a member at all four: a member at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held so successfully in Perth; a member of the G20 with the meeting held recently in France; a member of APEC, with a proud track record of support for APEC, with the meeting in Hawaii; and then, of course, the East Asia Summit held in Indonesia over the past weekend. It is only Australia that has been a member country at all four international meetings.

I thank the member for Melbourne Ports for his question about how Australia's interests have been advanced at these four summits. Whilst these four summits have been of different organisations with different members and different mandates in different places, there have been some cross-cutting themes. Most particularly in this parliament I would point to concern about the global economy and a focus on the current eurozone crisis. Across all four meetings leaders expressed that they were concerned about the circumstances of the global economy and what the eurozone crisis might mean for its future.

What was incredibly striking at all of these meetings was the difference between the circumstances of the Australian economy and the economies of so many nations around the world. It is all about jobs. It is all about this nation and this government having done what it needed to do during the global financial crisis to keep Australians working and being focused now on keeping Australians in jobs.

When we compare our economy to the economies around the world what we see is, by the standards of the world, low unemployment. Indeed, there are major economies battling unemployment rates that are double ours. We see strong public finances and low debt. We see a strong banking sector and, of course, we see strong prospects for growth because we are in the region of the world that is continuing to grow.

That has been reinforced at APEC and at the East Asia summit on the weekend: that this is the region of the world in this Asian century that the world is looking to be the source of economic growth. What this reinforces is the need in this Asian century to make sure—just as we managed the economy in the interests of working people during the global financial crisis—that we continue to manage it in their interests now. That does mean more appropriately taxing that sector of the economy which is racing ahead, which is turbo-charged, our mining sector, through the minerals resource rent tax and using that to spread opportunity to all around the nation so that we see people having the benefit of jobs, whether they are in small businesses, whether they are in manufacturing businesses, whether they are in retail businesses, whether they are in the services sector—that we can see Australians throughout our nation having the benefits of opportunity and jobs. That is what the minerals resource rent tax is about: the economy we want for the future where Australians throughout the nation enjoy the opportunity of getting a job.

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