Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Speaker, I was asked a question by the member for Reid about the opportunities for the future in the Asian century—something that everyone on this side of House is intensely focused on, because we understand that to create prosperity for the future, to spread opportunity in our country, we have to be fairly and squarely focused on the region, and how we can maximise the opportunities for growth in the region. And that is what the government has done through the Asian century whitepaper. It is a positive plan for the future.

Contrast that to the mud bucket being thrown by those opposite. We have had two questions today: all the mud slingers are out there. They have no plans for the future. We on this side of the House are going to focus on positive plans for the future. We understand that the opportunities in the region that will flow our way can create enormous wealth for Australia if we maximise those opportunities from the growth in the region.

We understand those opportunities will come in agriculture. We understand those opportunity will come in services. They will come in education. They will come in tourism. And they will come in a whole host of professional fields. And we also understand that those opportunities will come in manufacturing if we have a plan for the future and if we have the capacity to invest in lifting our productivity—in expanding the capacity of our economy.

Just today I was talking to 25 Chinese leaders across the road who have come here to study Australia to see how we can have closer economic relations so we can both benefit in the 21st century. What that was all about is understanding what we must do. As the Prime Minister said before, we have got to invest in education and skills. That is the key to lifting our productivity in the Asian century. We have got to invest in infrastructure. That is the key to lifting our productivity in the Asian century. We have got to reform, fundamentally, a whole host of areas of public policy, from regulation to tax. This is the positive approach of everybody on this side of the House, and it stands in stark contrast to how negative everyone on that side of the House is.

I am not a great follower of opinion polls, but I know one thing from recent polls: the Australian people have turned off the Leader of the Opposition. And they have turned off him because of how negative he is. He does not have a positive thing to say about this country. He talks the economy down every day. On this side of the House we will talk about the positives in Australia, because we believe in Australia.

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