Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Let us call this bill for what it is. The Tax Bonus for Working Australians Repeal Bill 2013 is the latest in a long line of coalition stunts in an attempt to denigrate the record of the previous Labor government. Let me be very clear with the House. The Labor Party is very proud of the performance of Australia during the global financial crisis, and we are not going to allow this government to rewrite Australian history for one moment. We have seen a rather pathetic attempt by the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, even in recent weeks, to rewrite history, and to rewrite history not only in Australia but, shamefully for the Prime Minister, to denigrate Australia's economic record in international fora.

Australia's economic record over the last 23 years is one that Australia should be proud of and should celebrate. The fact that we have a record of economic growth unprecedented in our history and unparalleled around the world is something that, if the government had a little bit of grace, they would acknowledge and recognise the efforts of the previous government. But no; this Prime Minister and this Treasurer are far too small to allow that to happen.

We know this bill is a stunt; you can tell by the explanatory memorandum. When the Treasurer brought this bill in, I thought: 'Maybe they're going to save millions of dollars by doing this. Maybe if this is such a big issue, it's a big contribution to the national savings task.' So I turned to the explanatory memorandum of the bill, circulated on the authority of the Hon. Joseph Benedict Hockey, Treasurer of Australia, to see what savings are generated by this bill. We are told that the waste is so profligate that they need to control expenditure, that this is an important piece of legislation and it is vital to their efforts to return the budget to surplus, but we find this measure is expected to save $0.25 million on an underlying cash basis over the forward estimates—$250,000 over four years! That is the big effort of this government.

An opposition member: Big bill!

This big bill, this big savings task, is for $250,000 over four years! This is how pathetic and low this government has got—that we are told this bill is so important.

Yesterday we saw the Leader of the House stop a matter of public importance about the loss of jobs in the Northern Territory to bring on the government's legislative program, even though they did not have any legislation. They have no plan, no agenda, no legislation, and the legislation that finally comes on today makes the massive contribution to returning Australia to surplus of $250,000 over the next four years! Compare that to the $20 million we are spending on vouchers for marriage counselling or the $5.5 billion we are spending on the extravagant and unaffordable Paid Parental Leave scheme, and we find this savings task being contributed to by this bill which saves $250,000 over four years.

I mentioned before that we have seen the Prime Minister and the Treasurer attempt to rewrite history. We saw it in Davos in the Prime Minister's embarrassing and pathetic contribution to the Davos forum. He said:

In the decade prior to the Crisis, consistent surpluses and a preference for business helped my country, Australia, to become one of the world’s best-performing economies.

Then, a subsequent government decided that the Crisis had changed the rules and that we should spend our way to prosperity.

Well, yes, there was a crisis, and it did require a change of government policy, and thank goodness the Labor government implemented the change of policy. We also saw the Prime Minister in that speech, as he opened his remarks, refer to the fact that the rest of the world was still struggling to recover from the global financial crisis. But, again, he did not have the good grace to recognise that Australia's performance was superior to the world performance and that we are not dealing with the massive unemployment overhang that the rest of the world is still dealing with.

This is a key point. This is not an esoteric historical argument about what would have happened back in 2008-09. This is an argument about what would still be happening now if the Labor government had not taken the strong and decisive action that it did. Australia would be dealing with the sorts of economic overhang that we are seeing the rest of the world struggle with today. It is not just about 2008-09; it is about the fact that the rest of the world is still dealing with massive unemployment. Yes, Australia got through the global financial crisis with an increase in unemployment, but with an increase in unemployment nowhere near as big as the rest of the world's.

Since the election we have lost 54,000 full-time jobs in Australia, which is more than Australia lost in the entire calendar year of 2009, during the global financial crisis, under the stewardship of the previous Labor government. We managed to save Australian jobs in the most difficult global circumstances since the 1930s, and on this government's watch already we have seen more jobs lost in less than six months than we saw in the entire calendar year of 2009, during the global financial crisis.

There is a problem for the Prime Minister. It did not seem to occur to him that at Davos he was talking to exactly the people who have hailed the Labor government's achievements in the past. It did not occur to him that he was talking to the World Bank, the IMF and other institutions which have said that Australia's efforts and the efforts, very particularly, of the previous Labor government were amongst the world's most effective in dealing with the global financial crisis. In the international arena they know, they saw, the terrible consequences of the global financial crisis—the human consequences, the unemployment consequences around the world—which, by and large, Australia avoided. Australia avoided them for a number of reasons, most particularly the strong and decisive action of the previous Labor government.

An important part of the stimulus was the direct payments to families—and the infrastructure investments, which this government seems intent on denigrating as well, but also the direct payments to families—because it was important to stimulate the economy quickly. And the facts speak for themselves. Australia was one of only three advanced economies out of 34 to avoid recession during the global financial crisis—one of three advanced economies out of 34. Will you hear the Prime Minister and the Treasurer celebrating that fact? No. They hate that fact. They hate the fact that the previous Labor government were competent economic managers who avoided recession. We hear a lot from this government about small business. Small business pays the price of recession. Small business goes out the back door when a recession bites. The previous government intervened to help small business.

I represent Western Sydney, as does my honourable friend the member for Blaxland. We have seen the impacts of global downturns on Australia's vulnerable areas. It is not just Western Sydney but rural and regional areas as well which get devastated when a downturn occurs, and which we intervened to assist. And at the same time as we did this, at the same time as we avoided recession, one of only three out of 34 advanced economies around the world to do so, we maintained Australia's AAA credit rating. But there was more: for the first time in Australia's history, the three major ratings agencies accorded Australia a AAA credit rating, not something that Peter Costello could achieve in all his years as Treasurer. Not once could he achieve that. It was achieved during the time of the honourable member for Lilley as Treasurer—something that this government refuses to acknowledge.

And we joined the club as it became more exclusive. When we came to office, there were many more countries around the world with three AAA credit ratings, and we were not one of them. As the global financial crisis spread around the world, countries lost their credit ratings and the club shrank, but Australia joined it as the club became more exclusive.

During our period of government, Australia's GDP per capita, which is the real measure of prosperity, rose from a ranking of 17th to eighth in the world. We jumped three places to go from being the 15th biggest economy in the world to being the 12th when we handed over office. During the Howard government, whose economic management we hear lauded by those opposite, did Australia jump three places in the world economic rankings? No; it went backwards in the world economic ratings during the Howard years, as the mining boom enveloped Australia and they were managing growth. We had to deal with the most difficult economic circumstances since the 1930s, and we jumped three places in the world economic rankings.

And it is not just about rankings. This makes a difference. This means that our income was higher. We were a richer country compared to the rest of the world, something we are proud of and something this government is too small-minded to acknowledge—too mean-spirited and small-minded to acknowledge for even a second. Let us look at what other people have said about the former Labor government's contribution during the global financial crisis. We saw Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel-prize-winning economist, state:

You were lucky to have, probably, the best designed stimulus package of any of the countries, advanced industrial countries, both in size and in design, timing and how it was spent - and I think it served Australia well …

Mr Robert interjecting—

The honourable member opposite denigrates Professor Stiglitz. He denigrates Professor Stiglitz. He's only got a Nobel prize in economics—I mean, what would he know! What is your Nobel prize in? What did you get the Nobel prize for? No, I do not recall your Nobel prize. 'Professor Stiglitz, what would he know?' the honourable member for Fadden says over there. I will take a Nobel prize winner in economics over the old honourable member for Fadden there any day. Professor Stiglitz said:

During the global recession, Kevin Rudd's government implemented one of the strongest Keynesian stimulus packages in the world.

The honourable member for Fadden accused Joseph Stiglitz of the terrible crime of being a Keynesian. Terrible! How could you be a Keynesian? Keynes is such an economic illiterate, isn't he! What will the honourable member for Fadden have to say in this debate? I cannot wait to hear it.

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