Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Forde for kicking off proceedings with this motion, because it's always good to start the week with a good laugh. It's certainly laughable that he can be part of a government for 10 years that saw productivity stagnate. In fact, the former government was in charge of the worst decade of productivity growth in more than half a century. No wonder he's slinking out of the chamber. Their only contribution to productivity growth—and I'm sure the minister would recall—was red tape day, and then they cut that. Remember that?

Their war on commas and semicolons ended because cutting was their only productivity option—cut, cut, cut. When we look back at the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison conga line all we see are missed opportunities and misplaced priorities that had nothing to do with boosting productivity growth. They were scary days for commas, but there was nothing in terms of fair dinkum productivity. They grabbed our economy and drove it like they stole it, and we're still paying for that crazy joy ride. The former government left behind a nation struggling to catch up, and the Albanese Labor government inherited an almighty mess to clean up.

A quick pointer for the opposition: do you know how you boost productivity? You invest in people. I know that the only renewable resource they believe in is ignorance, but we believe in the Australian people. Over the decade to 2020 the average annual labour productivity growth in Australia was the slowest in 60 years, falling to just 1.1 per cent compared to 1.8 per cent over the 60 years prior to that, basically. Inheriting the slowest labour productivity growth in 60 years isn't something that can be turned around overnight. It will take more than one term—plenty for the new member for Moreton, Jules Campbell, to work on when she comes in.

Thankfully, Labor are also making substantial progress with our responsible reforms in reversing the damage done to our economy. While labour productivity was flat in the March quarter, previous quarters started to show some positive movement. It grew 0.5 per cent in the December quarter at the end of last year and 1.1 per cent in the September quarter before that. So we acknowledge that there's work to be done, but our drive to boost productivity rests on investing in new industries, implementing better functioning markets, boosting competition, and boosting child care so that more parents can return to the workforce earlier—some of the lowest hanging productivity gains in our nation.

Crucially, Labor is also focusing on bolstering conditions and pay for hardworking Australians. Contrast this with the opposition, who want to make Australians work longer for less, via cuts. That's the LNP DNA. The Labor government knows that making Australians work harder for less money is not the answer here or in any situation. The Labor DNA is different. It's fairer and it's more equitable. Our approach combines strategic investment across a range of sectors—and investment in skills training is right up there; payments to every priority apprentice; opening up more fee-free TAFE for construction courses; upgrading our clean energy training infrastructure; and supporting women into male-dominated trades. When I go around to my businesses, the No. 1 concern that they have is l-a-b-o-u-r, finding bodies that are skilled and ready to work.

The Albanese government's fee-free TAFE initiative has exceeded targets. Since January last year, half a million Australians have enrolled in courses that directly address high skills demands. Fee-free TAFE doesn't just address cost-of-living pressures; it provides workers to bolster productivity growth. We're also looking towards the future: a future made in Australia. We're harnessing our natural advantages—our natural resources, our thriving business sector, our diverse economy, a skilled and willing workforce, and strong trading relationships to create job security and prosperity for all Australians. A Future Made in Australia focuses on attracting private investment to drive the development and growth of future industries. In fact, business investment is now higher than it was during the mining boom. Labor's policies are helping to attract large investments and seamlessly enable them.

As I said, all of our focus rests on supporting workers. The opposition views workplace relations as just another opportunity to say no—no to safer workplaces, no to closing the gender pay gap. Cuts, cuts, cuts are all we've come to expect from a party led by a walking jeremiad and his echo acolytes. Labor's approach to workplace relations is to drive more agreements, not more conflict and division. It is why our IR package ensures that all workers can access minimum standards in their workplaces.

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