Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

What they want is positive politics, not negative politics. They want us to build the house up, not tear it down. They want a government that says: 'Here are the problems we face. Face them squarely on the basis of facts, on the basis of real argument and on the basis of practical policy solutions.'

I say to the Leader of the Opposition that if the Australian people vote him in as the next Prime Minister of Australia—if they do—there is one core economic challenge facing us all, and that is this: the China resources boom is over. The China trade itself represents such a huge slice of the Australian national economy that we are looking at one huge adjustment for this nation's standard of living in the future unless we continue to act with appropriate policy responses. That means that on productivity we need to work hard to continue to boost our productivity. It means also the diversification of our economy. It means building up our manufacturing again. It means building up our agricultural sector and our processed food sector. This is the way forward, given the challenges we now face with a changed set of global economic circumstances. This government will put forward positive solutions as to how we handle those challenges, as we have done in the past. It is time for the old politics of negativity to be dead and buried.

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