Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During the past century, history has thrown up three great unplanned economic experiments where a group of people of similar cultural backgrounds, similar education, similar resources, similar history and similar environments have been separated and their economies subject to fundamentally different economic policies. History records the results: East Germany versus West Germany, Taiwan and Hong Kong compared to China, and North Korea compared to South Korea. In each experiment, the results where the same: the larger the government, the larger the bureaucracy, the more centrally planned the economy, the more socialist the policies—despite the best of intentions—the more dramatic the falls in living standards and the greater the differentials.

We now have a fourth unplanned economic experiment, this time with the election of a Labor state government in Victoria and a coalition government in New South Wales. We have started the fourth great unplanned economic experiment. In Victoria, we have a Labor government that believe in big government. They believe in giving more power to the bureaucracy. They believe in giving the unions more control. They believe in a more centrally planned economy. Compare that to the New South Wales government, who work on more market based principles.

While we talk about the State of Origin in Rugby League, which is New South Wales versus Queensland, the one that we should be looking is the economic state of origin of New South Wales versus Victoria. Will the results be any different this time? We just have to look at the first ABS figures released for April 2015, and we can see what the results are. For April 2015, the state of New South Wales put on 9,800 jobs—not a bad effort. I go to Victoria and the same ABS figures, and what do I see for the same period? They show a loss of 4,900 jobs. So in New South Wales 9,800 jobs were created; in Victoria 4,900 jobs were lost. I notice those on the other side of the chamber have gone very silent. I look forward to continuing to update the House during the next four years on this fourth great unplanned economic experiment. We have seen the results so far; sadly for our Victorian friends, I think that we are only going to see more and more of the same.