David Fawcett (Wakefield, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, how does a strong, flexible economy help sustain the prosperity that underpins the wellbeing of families such as those in Wakefield? What risks are there to this prosperity?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wakefield for that question. The member for Wakefield has been an articulate proponent of the interests of families in his electorate since he came to this place some 2½ years ago. In reply to that question, the very essence of a strong economy leading to a prosperous society is the flexibility of that economy. If we look at the Australian economy today, if we look at the fact that real wages are 20 per cent higher than they were 11 years ago, if we look at the fact that we now have the lowest level of industrial dispute since 1913, the year before World War I broke out, if we observe the historically low levels of interest rates in recent years, if we observe the fact that Australia has a 32-year low in unemployment, we will see these are the great human dividends of economic reforms that have been carried out—especially over the last 10 years. I can say unequivocally to the member for Wakefield that the reforms of the last 10 years that have made the Australian economy more flexible have indeed underpinned the current prosperity of the Australian economy.

One of those reforms, of course, was the reform of our industrial relations system. Those reforms have seen, over the last year or more, an additional 270,000 jobs. They have seen, as I said a moment ago, industrial disputes fall to their lowest level since 1918. They have seen continued rises in real wages and, importantly, the reforms of the past year plus earlier industrial relations reforms, including those of 1996 and the courageous reforms of the Australian waterfront in 1998, have produced a situation in which this country can now enjoy the benefits of a resources boom without the old centralised wage-fixing system flowing through the economy with disastrous consequences for those firms that are not in a position to afford the wage levels paid in areas like the mining industry.

It is instructive to read what the Governor of the Reserve Bank had to say in February this year. He said:

We are not getting today what we might once have gotten had we had a shock like this—the late 1970s resource boom or earlier occasions. On those occasions, the strong sectors would get a big pay rise and, through the centralised wage setting system, that would flow through to everybody else, through the Arbitration Commission. That does not happen any more.

Famously, that led to my predecessor as Prime Minister saying that George Campbell had 100,000 dead men hanging around his neck. George Campbell unfortunately has become the 101st dead man because he has been replaced by Doug Cameron. He in fact is the only trade union official who is leaving the parliament on the Labor side. It makes interesting reading. We had confirmation yesterday that 100 per cent of Labor members of parliament are union members. This is despite the fact that only 15 per cent of the private sector workforce are members of a union. Almost 70 per cent of the ALP frontbench are former union officials, three out of every four Labor senators are former union officials, the unions have already donated over $50 million to the Australian Labor Party since 1996, and more union bosses are set to enter the federal parliament at the next election through safe Labor seats or Senate spots.

Let me give you some of the names. We have Greg Combet, and he is taking the seat of Charlton. He is the secretary of the ACTU. Bill Shorten is taking the seat of Maribyrnong and he is the National Secretary of the AWU. Doug Cameron is taking George Campbell’s Senate seat and he is the National Secretary of the AMWU. The member for Lilley can stand as much as he likes, but nothing can alter the fact that I am reminding the Australian public—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lilley should be aware of standing order 62.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

of the way in which the union bosses are taking over the parliamentary Labor Party in this place. We have Don Farrell—you have not heard of him, but he is coming. He is the National President of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association and he is coming into a Senate spot in South Australia. We have Richard Marles, the Assistant Secretary of the ACTU, who is coming in in Corio—and doesn’t Gavan know that he is coming in in Corio—and we have Kevin Harkins. He is the Assistant Secretary of the Electrical Trades Union and he is coming in in Franklin.

Additionally, there are an army of other union bosses running in coalition held marginal seats. Note that the trade union bosses elite all have very safe seats. They look after their own, don’t they? You do not have Greg Combet running in a marginal seat. You do not have Richard Marles running in a marginal seat. They knock off sitting members and the elite, the creme de la creme, of the ACTU bosses are coming into this place via very safe seats. Of course, they are joining the member for Batman, the member for Hotham, the member for Throsby and other office holders of the ACTU who already sit here.

It is no wonder that one of the central commitments of the Leader of the Opposition is to overturn the historic reforms to Australia’s industrial relations system. What he will do if he becomes Prime Minister is roll back for the first time a major economic reform. It will be the first time in a generation that a major economic reform is being rolled back. But it is hardly surprising, because in the 11 years that the Labor Party have been in opposition they have behaved as irresponsibly as they intend to behave if they become the government of this country after the next election. They opposed getting the budget back into surplus, they opposed paying off $96 billion of government debt, they opposed taxation reform, they opposed waterfront reform and they opposed the second round of industrial relations reform; yet they would have the Australian public believe that their economic credentials are the same as the coalition’s. If the Leader of the Opposition wants to be taken seriously as a fiscal conservative, he has to explain to the Australian people why, since he entered the parliament in 1998—and I remind him that the very first significant vote he cast after entering the parliament in 1998 was against taxation reform, on 10 December 1998—he and his colleagues have consistently voted against all of the reforms that have given us the economic prosperity we now enjoy.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members would be well aware that when the Speaker is on his feet they will not interject.