Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very comforted to hear that it was once addressed by the former government, but the fact is: it was not addressed adequately. We had an appalling state of affairs with respect to productivity. This government confronted that issue. It was a painful issue, but we confronted it and we got better productivity. Where were you guys on that issue? What were you doing to advance productivity on the Australian waterfront? You were out to lunch. You either did not care about the issue or you were actually barracking for those who wanted to maintain the rorts and the inefficiencies on the Australian waterfront. I do not think that you can produce any examples, going back many years, of real attempts by the Australian Labor Party to produce real efficiency and productivity in the Australian economy. The fact is that what produces productivity is a flexible labour market; reform of key sectors like energy, water and transport; a strong focus on skills and education building; and good infrastructure.

To address Senator Carr’s point about education, I will give one statistic before I sit down. In primary and secondary education in public schools in Australia, enrolments have risen in the last 11 years by one per cent. That is because there have been low birth rates and there has been some drift into the non-government sector. There has been a one per cent increase in enrolments in government schools in Australia.