Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think they voted with their feet, and they thought this budget was so good they stayed in their rooms and dreamed about next time. Senator Carr, $96,000 million is $160 million per week that the Australian people are not having ripped out of their pockets. The government has paid off $96 billion. As Senator Scullion said during question time today, that is $160 million per week, $23 million per day, that the Australian Labor Party would have ripped out of their pockets if it had not been for us repaying $96 billion.

It is extraordinary that the only response you can give to the budget is to talk about productivity. Are we talking about productivity in 2004-05? No. But yes we are, indeed: it grew 2.4 per cent. Senator Sherry has come into the chamber today and alleged that there has been no productivity growth in 2006-07 and that is the result of Work Choices. I looked at my calendar this morning, Senator Sherry, and guess what, my friend? The year 2006-07 is not finished. ABS will not release their data until the end of the financial year. What an incredibly ignorant line to run about the budget. How utterly desperate are they?

If you want to talk about productivity, I will revisit a couple of things that Senator Minchin talked about today. He quoted some comments from Heather Ridout of the Australian Industry Group, who said:

Kevin Rudd talks a lot about productivity, but this reregulation will lower productivity.

This reregulation, of course, is the Labor Party’s new IR laws. What about Michael Chaney of the Business Council of Australia? He said:

Despite claiming to support policies that will lead to continued productivity, the ALP has clearly ignored consistent and strong business representations about how productivity and jobs growth is achieved in the economy.

The editorial in the Australian said that Mr Rudd’s reregulation of industrial relations will increase business operation and compliance costs and reduce productivity. It is very interesting if you listen closely enough in this place. When Senator Sherry asked Senator Minchin a question about productivity today, he quoted Heather Ridout’s comments and Senator Evans leaned across the table and interjected, ‘Oh, was that before last week’s changes?’ In other words, by their own admission, the Australian Labor Party have said that regulation of IR will dramatically impact on productivity—out of the mouths of babes.