Harry Jenkins (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What this graph shows clearly—and this is why I have asked that it be incorporated in Hansard so people can look at it—is that Australia did not go into recession but performed well. The graph compares Australia to the OECD average and the EU average, which, as we can see from the graph, troughed out. The other thing I want to emphasise is that if this had simply been a result of things that the coalition had done, and those things alone, that does not explain the different performance of the Australian economy compared to those other two sets of data. There is similarity in the run-up to the global economic situation and a completely different performance afterwards.

If those opposite are concerned, I place on record and have said in the opportunities that I had over the last four years, not in this place, that our performance during the global economic crisis was as a result of decisions of three governments: the Hawke-Keating years that took hard decisions; the Howard-Costello years, when—I might be described as being mealy-mouthed to say they could have made even more decisions—they were the stewards of the economy; and then, it has to be recognised, under Prime Ministers Rudd and Gillard and Treasurer Swan. It is not as if a government does not do anything that affects the economy, so I think we should give credit when a government can see those types of indicators of the performance of our economy.

Much can be said about these macrofigures and they are very important. We should look at them. We should analyse what it means. If we look at the performance of household savings that are now creeping back up, if we look at the ratios of household debt, which increased dramatically over the years from the late 1980s through to about 2004 and have now plateaued, we see a steadying out such that people can have confidence in the way they have control over their household economies. We should not look to the naysayers who say, 'Well, during the term of this government everything has gone awry.' If you look, for instance, at the Parliamentary Library's graph on household debt ratio you will see that it increased throughout the Howard-Costello years.

If these things are important for the confidence that people have in their economy, we should be talking about them. I have looked at the unemployment figures in the electorate of Scullin over the four years of Labor governments since 2007. In September 2007, in the three statistical local areas, unemployment in Whittlesea South was 5.1 per cent, in Banyule North it was 2.7 per cent and in Nillumbik South West it was 1.8 per cent. Now, for the September 2011 quarter, Nillumbik South West is still at 1.8 per cent and Banyule North has decreased to 2.6 per cent. Whittlesea South SLA has been replaced by Whittlesea South East, which is at 3.6 per cent, and Whittlesea South West, which is at 7.6 per cent.

That is what people in their day-to-day lives are looking for—the type of leadership that the government has shown to keep people in jobs, to increase the number of jobs as population increases, and to ensure that everybody throughout Australia has access to the things that make the economy tick over. Mr I am proud that I can stand in this place as somebody who has the great honour to represent what is described as a safe Labor seat and say that, over the last four years, the electorate of Scullin has got its fair share of federal programs. The federal programs have been above board, they have been transparent and they have given all areas of Australia the opportunity to put their hand up. Those that are going to be in partnership with us, whether they are non-government organisations or local government, also have the opportunity to do that.

To have $101 million allocated to 89 projects in education facilities in the electorate of Scullin is really big. Some of those schools had not had anything done to them in a major fashion since the seventies. When you go to those schools, they know the mealy mouthed criticism of a school halls program is hollow. They know the importance to the opportunities that their kids will get by the way in which the federal Labor governments under Prime Minister Rudd and Prime Minister Gillard have given opportunity to all Australians in education and by the way in which we have indiscriminately made sure that everybody gets an opportunity to share that benefit. I say to members that the appropriation bills should be passed without amendment. (Time expired)

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