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

I withdraw, Madam Speaker. Mr Pascoe went on to say:

So where's the ''budget crisis'' Hockey was spouting last May or the more general ''budget emergency'' that has become a government catch cry? It doesn't exist as advertised.

We saw the executive director of Fiscal Group of the Treasury, Mr Ray, again provide evidence to the Senate estimates committee that the budget position was sound.

We need to see from this government a plan in order to ensure that they continue to grow the economy and that jobs are created. I am going to say that I agree with the Treasurer. He says that today's national accounts figures need to be improved on. They do. He says that they do not provide enough economic growth to create enough jobs for unemployment to go down. He is right; I agree—and we need to see a plan to fix it. One plan would be good. The Treasurer and the Prime Minister like to have parallel plans when it comes to big issues facing the nation and they leak against each other and they background and they speculate about what the plans are going to be.

But how about a plan which did not see business tax increased by putting a levy on Australia's businesses? How about a plan which does not see an increase in small business tax by reversing Labor's pro-small business reforms? How about a plan which does not see businesses pay more tax because loss carry-back is abolished under this government? We need to see an adrenaline charge to investment. We need to see the reduction in mining investment being made up for in other sectors of the economy. Do you do that by increasing taxes, by putting a tax on business to pay for the $5 billion a year Paid Parental Leave scheme? Is that how you get an adrenaline charge in the economy? Do you do that by saying to Australia's self-funded retirees and superannuants, 'We are going to tax you more so that we can give $75,000 cheque to millionaires?' Is that how you turbocharge the economy? Is that how you get more investment from the non-mining sector? No, it is not. We need to see a plan that sees the rest of the economy making up for the decline in investment from the mining sector.

But what do we get from this government? All we get is blame. It is somebody else's fault. It is Labor's fault. It is Gough Whitlam's fault. It is Ben Chifley's fault. It is somebody else's fault. Or it is the workers' fault: the workers are paid too much on $50,000 a year. Or there is a wages explosion happening, the Minister for Workplace Relations tells us, a wages explosion which just happens to see the lowest wages growth since records began, which sees wages growing at 2.6 per cent per annum. Some explosion in wages! All we see is blame and excuses. From a government which told us there would be no surprises and no excuses, we see exactly the opposite. As the parliamentary secretary to the shadow Treasurer says, the Prime Minister has got a sign on his desk: the buck stops somewhere else. The buck stops somewhere else when it comes to this Prime Minister. He has to explain to the Australian people what his plan for their future is. Is it to put a levy on business? Yes, it is. How does that create jobs? He is yet to tell us. He has not faced the workers who have lost their jobs. He has not been to Geelong, as the Leader of the Opposition and I, Senator Carr and the member for Corio have and spoken to those workers—

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