Annette Hurley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There was a disparate range of issues raised today by the opposition, but I would like to take note of the answers regarding the economy and the budget. There were several which touched on this dominant theme of recent debate, which was also a theme of the election. It has been a strong focus for this government since coming into power. They have focused on the economy and the budget process and fulfilled an election commitment to be conservative fiscal managers. Naturally, and the Prime Minister has already signalled this, that will result in a bit of pain during the budget process. The Labor government have a commitment to rein in the problems that were created by the former government not addressing a number of threats and a number of opportunities in the economy in the recent past. It is true that Australia has had a strong economy over the past decade or two. Australia has made good use of favourable world economic conditions and favourable terms of trade conditions to put many of the indicators in a good position. But whether it made the former government lazy or whether they were simply incapable of dealing with the issues, they ignored a number of threats that were apparent over the last few years. In particular, they did not make use of a number of opportunities presented by the economic conditions at the time.

Senator Evans spoke about the balance of trade being stubbornly and consistently negative for Australia. In opposition, the Labor Party warned about the problems that might result from this and some of those problems are coming home to roost. Successive Liberal governments did not deal with a number of these issues, and now the incoming Rudd government has the difficult task of addressing a lot of those threats that are apparent, and becoming more apparent. The Labor government is looking to the future; it is looking to provide a stable and solid economic platform for the future. It does have to deal with the problems of building capacity and building up skills and addressing infrastructure needs while fulfilling its commitments to deliver a good budget surplus and rein in spending to ensure that inflation is contained in our economy. All of these things impact on the Labor constituency, those working families that are affected by interest rate rises, by inflation, by price increases—as was outlined with petrol prices, grocery prices and so on.

We in the Labor Party are determined to make sure the economy is right because we are interested in working families and making sure that those working families benefit from the strength of the economy. We are making sure that it is not just chief executives and senior executives of large companies that benefit, but that the benefits of a strong economy are also felt by working families in Australia. From time to time those opposite make fun of the phrase ‘working families’, but it is a serious issue for us in the Labor Party because that represents a fundamental constituency of ours. We have a strong connection and a strong loyalty to make sure that any benefits of Australian wealth created through our primary industries or through our manufacturing or services are felt by those Australians and that their work is well rewarded. That is what drives the Labor Party and will continue to drive the Labor Party and guide our examination of the budget processes and, where the pain might be felt in that budget, to ensure that spending is properly targeted and focused. (Time expired)