Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. I remind the Treasurer that this year's World Competitiveness Yearbook shows only eight per cent of respondents found that competency of government was attractive in Australia, only five per cent approved of Australia's tax regime and only 12 per cent found Australia a business-friendly environment. Can the Treasurer explain how 21,000 new regulations plus 39 new or increased taxes under this government has made Australia more globally competitive?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the shadow Treasurer for that question. It comes from a political party that aspires to be the government of Australia and is going to jack up company taxes by 1.5 per cent, making sure that our rates fall behind countries like Mexico and Spain in terms of competitiveness. So I do not think they should be coming in here and lecturing this government about competitiveness. All of the evidence says: yes, we have to attend to our tax systems; yes, they must be competitive. Clearly, those on the other side of the House do not want a competitive tax system because for some time they were also opposing our tripling of the tax-free threshold, because they do not like low-income workers. They were doing that for a while as well.

Let us talk about competitiveness. Every single international study shows one thing: the most important thing a country can do is invest in its people, invest in education. Investing in education is the most fundamental thing a country can do to lift its productivity for the long term. That is at the centre of every international study that has been done in this area. But what is this all really about? Those opposite come into this House day after day and talk down our economy. That is a Trojan Horse for justifying their savage cuts to the bone, their aping of austerity from Europe, which they are not going to tell the Australian people about. So what they want to do is talk down our economy, generate a sense of uncertainty—

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Speaker, my point of order goes to relevance. I ask that you bring the Treasurer back to the question about the 39 new or increased taxes under Labor—

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for North Sydney will resume his seat. The Treasurer has the call and will refer to the question before the chair.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was asked about our economy as compared with other economies in the world, and our economy compared with other economies in the world is doing very well. But those opposite come in here day after day and talk it down. On the day that we have got a report from the OECD which shows that our economy is in good nick, which endorses the government's fiscal policy, they come in here and talk our economy down. On the day that we get a set of capex figures that show the strength of investment in the forward years not just in mining areas but also in non-mining areas, they come in here and talk our economy down.

But the OECD report today is undeniable. It shows that we have one of the strongest-growing developed economies in the world, and everyone on this side of the House is proud of that fact. But what the shadow Treasurer does is come in here and talk the economy down. We have got a AAA credit rating from the three major rating agencies globally, something that was never done by those opposite. We have got low unemployment. We have got a strong investment pipeline. We have got record low interest rates. We have got an economy which is in good nick but which is in transition, and what our budget was about was putting in place fiscal settings which would support jobs and growth. Those opposite will never support jobs and growth because what they support is what the member for Tangney said on the door when he let the cat out of the bag: they support austerity and the loss of jobs and very big cuts to the bone.