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

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. The Minister for Resources and Energy today has been talking about the prices we have been seeing for commodities. He has indicated that prices have come off a bit—or, if you like, that the commodity price boom has passed its peak—but that there is huge investment phase which still has some way to run and that the export boom in resources still has a very long way to run. The point that the resources minister made—and indeed I am making it myself now—has been made repeatedly and it is actually in the government's budget papers as well.

The fact is that Australia's terms of trade peaked about a year ago after reaching 150-year highs, but they still remain at historically high levels. What that means is that we will continue to see this nation earn a great deal of prosperity and wealth from exporting resources. We will continue to see billions of dollars invested in our resources sector. We will continue to see the opening of new projects and we will continue to see investment decisions made for those new projects. So, the mining boom—the amount we are earning from exporting minerals—will be with us for a long time to come.

But we need to prepare for our long-term future. I have certainly said consistently in this parliament, and as recently as yesterday, that the government is managing the economy to keep it strong and running it in the interests of working people. But we understand that nothing is guaranteed about the future; you always have to build it, and part of building it is making sure that we are continuously upgrading the skills and capacities of the Australian people. That is why we have made record investments in education and we are continuing that journey of change.

You always have to be prepared to invest in infrastructure and bring in the new technologies of the future. That is why we have invested more than $30 billion in infrastructure projects and why we are delivering the National Broadband Network. We have to be ready for a future in which we tackle climate change and seize the benefits of clean energy sources, and that is why we have priced carbon. These are the preparations the government is making today, including some very hard decisions, so that we have long-term prosperity.

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