Santo Santoro (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

in reply—At the outset I would like to thank Senator Murray and Senator Sherry for their comments and for their support of Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2005-2006 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2005-2006, which we have been debating this evening. As honourable senators have stated, the bills request new appropriations of approximately $2.6 billion. People out there who are listening to this debate may be asking, ‘Why do we need to appropriate $2.6 billion?’ and the reason is worth restating. The requirement for additional funding arises from policy decisions taken by the government since the last budget, most of which were described in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook document published in December last year. However, they were also necessitated by changes in the estimates of program expenditure due to variations in the timing of payments and forecast increases in cost and because of reclassifications and funding movements.

I listened with great interest to the contributions of Senator Murray and Senator Sherry. I listened to quite a bit but not all of Senator Murray’s contribution, and I listened to the whole of Senator Sherry’s contribution. I appreciated the tone of it, but the content of it seemed to suggest that the economic prosperity and all the good social consequences that come from the economic prosperity are the result of Labor Party policies implemented during their term—or it is wishful thinking by the Labor Party whilst they have been in opposition. From our point of view it really is worth restating the economic achievements of this government. I will not take all night, and I certainly will not take up all of my time, but in order to respond somewhat to Senator Sherry’s statements it is important to say that these additional estimates do support the government’s budget and economic management and they do request funding for important initiatives and the maintenance of government initiatives which in fact have put Australia in the great economic and social condition that it is in at the moment.

The government obviously stands by its performance and economic management. I will not accept the tacit or explicit criticisms of Senator Sherry. Since 1996, the Australian economy has seen a long period of sustained, strong growth. In 2005-06, the economy is forecast to grow by three per cent. During the sustained period of growth, the unemployment rate has been reduced while inflation and interest rates have been kept low. If we are looking for clues as to why Australia enjoys the economic advantage and strength that we are able to boast about, it is mainly because of those two achievements—low inflation and low interest rates. They have created the business certainty, as a result of which small businesses in particular have been able to plan their economic activities and production in a way that has certainty.

The official interest rate has fallen from 7.5 per cent in March 1996—that date being, of course, when the people of Australia saw Labor off—and it is five per cent at the present time. At the current rate of 5.3 per cent, unemployment remains the lowest since monthly labour market statistics were introduced in February 1978. That is certainly an achievement worth noting, and that achievement has been under the Howard-Costello Liberal-National Party coalition government. Inflation remains moderate. The CPI rose by 0.5 per cent in the December quarter of 2005, and it increased by 2.8 per cent through the year. In terms of the fiscal record, there are other major boasts that we can make tonight. The government have reduced net debt, which we inherited from the Labor Party, by $85.3 billion to $11.5 billion in 2004-05. As a result, Australia is able to boast of having one of the lowest government net debt levels in the OECD. That is worth restating.

I heard Senator Sherry talk about the eight pillars of the Labor Party’s forthcoming economic statement, which will guarantee the economic growth and stability that previous Labor Party policies in government were not able to guarantee. We wait to see what is different in terms of the forthcoming economic statements by Mr Beazley and Senator Sherry in this place. Senator Sherry talked about budget discipline, reform of the tax system and greater funding for skills and education. The figures that Australia is able to quote as being its proud economic boast are in fact the result of budget discipline, reform of the tax system and massive, record increases in the funding for skills and basic education in Australia. That has happened since 1996 under the Howard-Costello Liberal-National coalition government. In the event of, God forbid, a Labor Party victory at the next election, Australia may still stand a chance of prospering if Labor’s policies reflect ours. But why go with an imitation rather than the real thing? That is the problem that you on that side of the chamber are all grappling with at the moment. We will leave that to you to come to grips with.

In terms of workplace relations, I can only say to Senator Murray, and also in response to Senator Sherry’s comments about the lack of any serious research on the impact of workplace relations policies, that the workplace relations policies which came into effect on Monday do not represent a revolution in workplace relations reforms. They are part of an evolutionary process that has been adopted by this government over the last 10 years. That evolutionary process has seen the ordered, considered and sensible introduction of reforms, the results of which speak for themselves. The Treasurer does not have to go about undertaking extensive research and extensive surveys about the impact of the additional workplace relations reforms that were introduced on Monday, because our track record speaks for itself. I have just outlined it. So this suggestion that we need to have research to justify our introduction of further reforms to the system just does not stack up. We stand by our record. As we say day after day in this place in answer to questions, our track record speaks for itself and that is why the people of Australia have elected this government on four successive occasions. They will continue to do that as long as we keep on delivering the goods. It is our intention to keep doing that.

I heard Senator Sherry speak about budget surpluses. He obviously admired budget surpluses and made some suggestions on how we should consider spending the budget surpluses. I will tell you what we will continue to do: we will continue to retire Labor Party debt to the point where there will not be any more debt to retire. We will continue to provide tax cuts, as we have been doing in successive budgets and successive statements.