Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. If there is a sovereign risk to Australia it is those opposite talking down the Australian economy. It is those opposite who are willing to say anything and do anything to find their way into power. It is those opposite who are not willing to speak the truth about the Australian economy. There is something economists have called a 'misery index'. It is inflation plus unemployment. I find it hard to think of a time when the misery index has been as low as it is today—five per cent unemployment, less than two per cent inflation rate—and at the same time we have got a cash rate lower than at any other time when those opposite were in office.

There is only one member of those opposite who on economic questions does not look like a flopping fish out of water and that is the member for Wentworth. The problem is that when he sticks his head up to say things, as he did on the carbon price, for example, to make the point, his colleagues got a little uncomfortable. You will not find an economist anywhere that will tell you anything other than that the most efficient and effective way to cut emissions is by putting a price on carbon. When the member for Wentworth pops his head up to say things like that, of course, his colleagues get a little uncomfortable. 'Malcolm, come back down to the cool waters of populism,' they say, 'Come back down here. You do not look like a fish out of water up there, but really we would prefer that you came down here with the rest of the bottom feeders.'

Occasionally, young people will come to me and say that they are thinking about joining the Liberal-National Party. I say to them: that is fine, but let me tell you a bit of your legacy; let me tell you what it means to be a conservative. When Australia was threatened in World War II, it was a Labor government that brought our troops home to defend our shores, and conservatives who thought we should defend the Empire. When gender discrimination reared its ugly head it was a Labor government that proposed the Sex Discrimination Act; it was the conservatives who said no. In a nation built on Indigenous lands, it was a Labor government who brought about historic native title—

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