Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer: why does Australia have one of the strongest economies in the world; and how will the government's plan for smarter and fairer schools make our economy even stronger?

Mr Hockey interjecting—

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

The member for North Sydney is warned! Abusing the standing orders is something that cannot be tolerated. The Treasurer has the call.

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

I thank the member for Capricornia for that question, because over the past five years our economy has emerged as one of the strongest developed economies within the global economy. All of this has been achieved in the middle of extraordinary uncertainty: the global financial crisis and all of its aftershocks. You only have to look to Europe and what has occurred there in the last couple of months. We have achieved something very special in this area for Australia. It has been done by choice and not by chance because, if those people opposite would have had their way, they would not have moved to support the economy as we did during the global financial crisis. Because of the actions that we took, we supported employment and we avoided the skill destruction, the capital destruction and the destruction of communities that come from high levels of unemployment and the destruction that it causes to small business. All of that was avoided in this country, giving us the strength to invest for the future to make sure we get the prosperity of tomorrow.

Let us just look at some of the facts: our economy is 14 per cent larger than it was at the end of 2007. If those people opposite had had their way this economy would have experienced a recession. In our economy there have been almost one million jobs created over the past five years. We have an unemployment rate of 5.5 per cent, one of the lowest in the developed world, and particularly when you look to Europe where the rate is 12.2 per cent. We have strong public finances. We have a AAA credit rating from the three major global rating agencies with a stable outlook—something never achieved by that mob in 12 years—and of course we have low levels of debt.

All of these things say that our economy is in good nick. But what we have to do is to make the investments for the future; make the smart investments for the future. That is why we found the savings in our budget to make the investments in education, investments that the Prime Minister has been talking about today. We understand that the future of productivity growth in this economy is dependent upon the investments we make in the quality of our education today and over the next decade. And that is precisely what we are doing; precisely why we are investing in schools, in New South Wales with a Liberal premier and investing in South Australia.

We hope to invest right across our country, but what we have seen here is just how negative the Liberals are when it comes to this fundamental investment in the future of our country. Playing politics with the education of our kids, and nowhere is that worse than in my state of Queensland which badly needs the additional money. The additional $3.8 billion to lift the educational standards in our state. Last week, we saw the Benny Hill routine of the Premier of Queensland in and out of state schools, unable to explain why he is being so difficult and negative when the truth is that he and the Leader of the Opposition are in lock step because they do not believe in investing in our schools.

We on this side of the House are up for the future investments which will provide for future prosperity. (Time expired)