Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Forshaw for the question. The Rudd Labor government is very focused on building a modern economy to meet the challenges of the future, but at the moment we have very pressing concerns on the domestic front with inflation. Inflation hurts working families and businesses; it eats away at savings and threatens our national prosperity. The cause of the pressure is clear. The Reserve Bank repeatedly warned the Howard government to address the skill shortages, the lack of capacity and the infrastructure constraints in the economy. I know that very well because, when I talked to business while in opposition as our resources spokesperson, the thing that business stressed to me all the time was the capacity constraints in the economy. What was concerning business was the lack of skilled labour, the lack of infrastructure and the lack of capacity to grow their businesses. The RBA and business warned them, but the former Howard government failed to heed those warnings and failed to assist in building the capacity of the economy. As a result, we became ill prepared to deal with the inflationary pressures.

The economy is strong, but future prosperity is threatened by the cancer of inflation. The government is realistic in knowing that the problem cannot be solved overnight. These pressures took a long time to build and will take time to turn around. That is why we have been hard at work meeting the challenge since day one. We did not create the problem. The gentlemen on the other side created the problem, but we are going to fix it. That is why the Prime Minister has outlined his five-point plan to fight the inflation legacy that the Howard-Costello government left us. Senator Minchin should take responsibility for his failure to rein in the spending of that former government. Senator Minchin ought to take responsibility for the fact that his Prime Minister and Treasurer spent like drunken sailors while he sat on his hands. They spent like drunken sailors while the finance minister was missing in action.