Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

Doom and gloom—that is the story of the opposition. It is doom and gloom every single day. Not a day has passed without doom and gloom since 2010. They are economical with the facts, economical with reality and economical with working Australians' and ordinary Australians' future. That is what the opposition represent every single day they come into this parliament and every single day since Labor was returned to government. They are merchants of doom, merchants of despair. Every time there is bad news, good news, not so good news or any news at all, they want to turn that into doom and despair, but they particularly love it if there is any bad global news. Anything that could possibly reflect on the Australian economy in some way, you can hear another champagne cork popping in one of their offices because it is the best news they have ever heard. When people suffer it is the best news they have ever heard.

The government comes into this place and tries to introduce policies and laws to assist ordinary families with the cost of living and with kids' education, and to build the nation at a time when the whole world—every single economy, every single country—is going through one of the toughest global economic periods in modern history. But somehow none of that factors into their economic reality. There is the fact that ordinary people who work every single day—because they still have a job, by the way: they still have a job!—and work harder and save harder understand much better than this opposition the economic reality as well as the economic fact that when the world is going through a period of global recession—a global financial crisis—it is a time when people have to readjust the way they work, the way they live and the way they consume. We have seen that right across our economy and we have seen it right across every sector, and it is acknowledged widely.

So what should a good government do? A good government should put its shoulder to the wheel and it should make the toughest of decisions—the hard decisions. It should spend where spending is required; it should protect jobs where protection is required; it should work with global markets to ensure that we still have a global economy in Australia; it should make sure that we keep interest rates low; it should make sure that we keep inflation under control at the same time; and—lo!—it should make sure that we keep a AAA rating across all three rating agencies. This is something that the economic geniuses across the aisle have never achieved in government while the rivers of gold flowed into this place. It is unprecedented in Australian history: unseen before. But while they had that great economic boom they just did not do enough with it or did not do anything with it. There were no great reforms. The only great reform that came out of that era when the rivers of gold flowed into Canberra was the GST.

Let us just call their strategy from day one for what it is. Let us just put it on the table. On day one Tony Abbott, shadow Treasurer Hockey and others had a meeting and said: 'Our strategy is simple: blow the place up every day. Make it impossible not just for the government but for everybody. Let's just blow the place up. Let's lower confidence. Let's call for an election every day.' Every single day they come into this place they call for an election and every single day out in the community they call for an election because it is about destroying confidence. It is about being negative. Negativity breeds negativity. 'Let's just go out there and poison people's minds. Let's tell them that they're all vulnerable. It is not as if they do not get enough of it on the six o'clock news with what is happening in Europe. It is not as if it is enough to see what happens in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, Greece and France and what is happening to the US economy and all around the world. It is not enough that they get this every single day at six o'clock at night on the news. We have to make it as bad as possible,' the opposition says, 'for Australia as well. Let's make them suffer!'

That is their strategy: blow the place up, call for an election every day and be negative every single day—and they have been good at it, I have to say—'Let's throw enough mud, because everyone knows the theory of throwing enough mud. Let's just keep throwing mud every single day. Let's go the low road and let's go personal.' That is what they have done. They have done it every single day. And let me tell you: they have been stellar at doing that. That is one thing they are really, really good at doing. Every time there is bad news another champagne bottle gets uncorked over at the Liberal Party headquarters. I have never seen smiles larger and more vivid than when there is one little piece of bad economic news. It is at complete odds with the real economy—real people and what is really happening out there in the world. The fact is that we have managed to keep interest rates low, saving people an enormous amount on their mortgages. That is much better than the Liberal Party ever did in government.

Mr Frydenberg interjecting—

That is one thing that you cannot deny: it is just a fact. John Howard always used to say, 'You will always have lower interest rates under a Liberal government.' Wrong! Not just wrong; completely wrong, and proved wrong year after year. Every time there is a Reserve Bank decision: wrong again. Any good news on the economy is shot down.

But look at the unemployment numbers. It is not just the case that there are low interest rates and that people who have mortgages are paying less. They have actually made a really smart decision. They have said: 'Times are tough. We all acknowledge that. The world has gone through a GFC.' The Liberals would actually have you believe, had they been in government, that the GFC would not have even happened. There would not have even been one. They would not have had to deal with it because we know their response to the GFC: you oppose everything. You oppose the stimulus package. You oppose the fact that we want to continue the building and construction industry in this country by investing in schools and school infrastructure: investing in classrooms, investing in science labs, investing in kids, investing in technology and investing in teachers. What could—

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