Fiona Scott (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline the importance of improving productivity in the Australian economy. What are the alternative approaches? How will increasing productivity benefit the people of Lindsay?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. There is a great deal of precedence and specific reference in practice against asking for alternative approaches. Ministers are here to answer about their own policies.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order. I call the honourable the Treasurer.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, on a point of order: you yourself have raised that point of order.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I clearly did it better.

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

I thank the member for Lindsay for her question and recognise that she is obviously very focused on the issues which are directly relevant to the long-term interests of her community. That is unlike her predecessor, who was part of a government that let go of Australia. They lost control of the Australian economy. That was best illustrated by the fact they lost control of the Australian budget. It has just been revealed by the IMF that—under the last Labor regime—for the six years going forward, the legacy of Labor on the budget, from 2012 to 2018, is that we would have the largest increase in spending of the 17 IMF advanced economies profiled. So Labor buried in the budget spending increases faster than any other major advanced economy in the world—more than Korea, Canada, Germany, France or Japan. That is Labor's legacy—big promises, big spending and 'Don't worry about the bills; someone else will have to pay them.'

The challenge is: we have to rein that in. It is impossible to have an economy saddled with the biggest spending promises of any advanced nation in the world. Labor promised everything but they delivered little. When it comes to productivity, when it comes to the capacity of the Australian economy to produce more, the Labor Party left us behind. In fact, if we want to sustain our national income growth just at our 30-year average, if we want to sustain our quality of life just at our 30-year average, we have to increase labour productivity growth to over three per cent a year. Currently it is stuck at around two per cent. That three per cent would be a historic high.

What does that legacy mean for Lindsay? Under the infrastructure Prime Minister and the infrastructure government, we will get on with the job of building things like WestConnex. What does that mean? For Western Sydney, WestConnex will allow the constituents of Lindsay to bypass 52 sets of traffic lights and save over 40 minutes on their trips to Sydney. What does that mean for productivity? It means that the trucks and the transport that are driving the Australian economy and the economy of Western Sydney will get a fair go, will get the opportunity to do more with less. That is what it is about. It is a huge task. Instead of the opposition bleating, I say to the opposition: get on the agenda. We are dealing with your legacy of debt, deficit and structural problems. Get on board with trying to fix it!