Peter Hendy (Eden-Monaro, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Productivity) Share this | Hansard source

I am very happy to be addressing the chamber on this particular matter of public importance. I note it is about Australia's economic growth and productivity and I note it was tabled by the member for Greenway, who happens to not be here—she is obviously not so interested in the topic after she has had what she—

Mr Conroy interjecting—

Oh—it is the brains trust from the CFMEU! We will get something from you, mate. I am very happy as the new Assistant Minister for Productivity to be discussing Australia's economic growth and productivity. The government has a whole range of issues on the agenda that we are implementing. I will go through them in the course of the next five minutes. They go to the free trade agreements that we are implementing in this country; they go to the small business policies that we are implementing; they go to the NBN rollout that we are implementing; they go to the innovation agenda that the new Assistant Minister for Innovation and the Assistant Minister for Science are working on.

Productivity is very, very important for a country. What is productivity? Some people think that it is just an economist's term. There is a whole bunch of schoolkids in the gallery. It is not just an economist's term, it is what it is, in a sense, a common-sense interpretation of the word. Productivity is about taking the things you have got—the labour, the capital, the IT equipment, the computers or whatever it is—and using them as efficiently as possible. To be productive and to increase productivity is a good thing, whatever you are doing—whether you are producing goods and services in the private sector or you are concentrating on the public provision of health services or education services. Productivity is vital to the Australian economy.

Recently, the Productivity Commission put out its most recent productivity update and that is dated July 2015, so it is hot off the press. The recent record in terms of productivity in Australia has not been so good, and that is why it is an issue for debate in Australia. During the period of the last government—the last Labor government from 2007 up to 2013—unfortunately, productivity in Australia went backwards. It declined—minus 0.1 per cent. It is not good.

This government are attempting to get productivity as strong as possible and to get it back to where it is in the long-term trend for Australia—that is, a productivity growth of 0.8 per cent. These are not very big numbers but they are very, very significant numbers—if you can get up to a growth rate of around 0.8 per cent or one per cent as an annual rate. At the moment, it is 0.4 per cent. In the period we have been in government, we have got it up to 0.4 per cent. So we have done very well compared to the previous six years, when it was simply minus 0.1 per cent.

What are we doing to do that, to ensure that that is happening? I will get to the trade agreements, for example. The fact is that we are also doing reviews of taxation, we are doing reviews of workplace relations, we are doing reviews of competition policy and the financial systems inquiry is there. These are all very, very big areas of sectors of the economy. We are looking at what we can do to make sure that we can produce the goods in the most efficient way and strengthen the economy, strengthen the revenue base of governments in Australia and, therefore, provide the social welfare net, the education services, the scientific research by the CSIRO—which is at record levels, I understand, from the Assistant Minister for Science—and other education provision in this country.

The big things that have happened recently are the three free trade agreements. We have one going with Japan. We have one going with Korea. We hope that, by the end of this year, we will have one going with China. I really appreciate the outbreak in bipartisanship that might be happening with regard to China. That will be a big, big benefit to the country. Now, we have the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, which is another great, great deal that we have been able to negotiate, and I hope it can be introduced in the near future.

See this speech in context