John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

You do not want to believe that, Senator Watson. I understand and accept it. If you did not, you would not be in opposition. You would not be melting away into oblivion over there. He further said it is a budget that will:

… ensure we meet the uncertainties of the future from a position of strength.

Let us look at what Mr Swan had to say about those economic factors. He said:

The Australian economy is enjoying its 17th year of growth, now spanning three governments.

He did not isolate it to one government; he said it is now spanning three governments. But he also said:

… productivity growth over the last five years has averaged 1.4 per cent a year, the lowest in 17 years.

This is the problem with the former government. They took their eyes off the ball. They lost their way. Productivity growth over the last five years was the lowest in 17 years. That was identified in the Treasurer’s speech the other night. No-one from the other side has answered that. He then went on to say:

And capacity constraints have put upward pressure on inflation.

Nothing has been said about the capacity constraints that have put pressure on inflation. I will come to that later. He then said:

When the Government came to office less than six months ago, Australia was facing the highest levels of domestic inflation in over 16 years—

so it was only natural that the Labor government would respond to the challenge that was put before it—

and inflation reached 4.2 per cent in the March quarter.

He went on to say, and this is significant:

Inflation is a drag on growth. It saps confidence, and hurts families and businesses throughout Australia.

Inflation is pervasive and it affects the life and lifestyles of every living person in this country, whether they be the wealthy or whether they be the poor. He went on:

We are working to put downward pressure on inflation so that we can ease the cost of living and interest rate pressures on working families.

To do that, what did Labor do? I will refer briefly to a press release from the Treasurer, dated 13 May. It is interesting to look at some of the areas that Labor decided to address, which have been neglected for a long period by the former government. Under ‘education and skills’, the Treasurer said:

The 2008-09 Budget invests $5.9 billion over five years in the Rudd Government’s Education Revolution, from early childhood education and care, through schools, vocational training and to our universities.

When I came here back in 1996, the first Howard budget was savage on the university area, and it has suffered ever since. It has never recovered. Higher education suffered badly. As a result of that, we have very significant skills shortages in that area. The vocational education and training area also suffered, and the shortages there are manifest in our community today.

The Rudd budget is delivering. It is putting $5.9 billion over five years into the education revolution. In a specific initiative, it is putting aside $2.5 billion over 10 years for trade training centres in schools. No-one would deny the trade shortages that exist, whether they be in the mining industry in my state of Queensland, whether they be in the mining industry in Western Australia or whether they be in our defence forces. It does not matter where one goes; there are chronic shortages of skilled labour.

Labor is prepared to put significant funds into trade training to shore up the gaps that are there—to ensure that the gaps do not cause the inflationary pressure that has come about as a result of the neglect of the Howard government in the latter time that it was in power. Under education and skills we are also committed to:

• $1.9 billion over five years to deliver up to 630,000 additional training places to boost the skill level of the workforce; and
• $1.2 billion over five years to provide up to $1 million per school to deliver computers and communication technologies to all students in Years 9 to 12.

This is something that is going to make us a clever nation and give us skills and jobs for the future. In his press release, the Treasurer went on to say:

… the Government will establish the Education Investment Fund to finance capital investment in higher education and vocational training.

This is a fund to operate into the future. This is not looking backwards; this is looking at shoring up the future for young people, ensuring that the education facilities in both higher education and vocational training are available.

There is an initial allocation there of $11 billion, and $6 billion of that will come from the Higher Education Endowment Fund. Further, in Mr Swan’s press release, he referred to an additional $500 million which will be provided in 2007-08 to help universities upgrade and maintain teaching and research facilities. He said:

This is a much needed down-payment of overdue funding, in advance of the funding decisions that will be taken once the Education Investment Fund is in place.

That is clearly a recognition of the gap in spending that had occurred in the years of the Howard government. He also outlined in his press release our commitment in terms of climate change, water and the environment. He clearly said in his statement that there had been a decade of neglect and inaction on the part of the previous government. Of course, this budget will deliver in full on the government’s commitment to tackle the long-term challenge of climate change, with measures totalling $2.3 billion over five years. Unlike the climate sceptics on the other side, we have a definite view that this issue needs to be addressed or we will suffer the consequences. It will have an effect on the jobs in our community, on inflation, on our capacity to produce goods competitively with other countries and on our capacity to provide average Australians with an income and a lifestyle that they deserve.

To address this issue, as I said, we have committed $2.3 billion over five years. Of that, $500 million over eight years is for projects that accelerate the development and deployment of clean coal and low emission technologies, $500 million over six years is to support the new renewable energy target and to accelerate the development and commercialisation of renewable technologies in Australia, and $150 million over four years is to support the development of clean energy technologies in Australia. Recently I had the pleasure of going to Emerald in central Queensland and whilst in Emerald I went to Blackwater and looked at the Blackwater International Coal Centre, which is being funded primarily by government and also industry. The centre is meant to focus on the role that coal will play into the future—in particular, clean coal.

Energy is important in the ongoing success of our society, in our capacity to deliver secure jobs to people so that they can plan their futures. Across the street from the coal centre I watched endless trains—wagons—loaded with coal, heading off to the ports. One of the people that were showing us around the new centre made a point of saying, ‘Every wagon that you see there has at least $10,000 worth of coal that is heading overseas and coming back into the Australian economy.’

One of the problems that we face—you would not believe it—is that the former Howard government failed to invest in infrastructure. The problems that we have getting out our products at the ports in Queensland are incredible indeed. But the Rudd Labor government has committed to investing in infrastructure in this budget—and not in an insignificant way. The Treasurer, again in his press release, made the point:

Neglect of critical infrastructure over the past decade has pushed up the costs of doing business and contributed to inflation and interest rate pressures in the economy. The Rudd Government is committed to tackling infrastructure bottlenecks that are constraining our economy.

That is a clear commitment on the part of the Rudd government. Surely, those with even a small amount of common sense on that side of the chamber would not be critical of that initiative. He refers then to the forming of Infrastructure Australia and the fact that we will develop a blueprint to unlock the infrastructure bottlenecks. That is vision—that did not happen in the previous budgets of the former Howard government. They ignored it.

So we have the establishment of the Building Australia Fund. There will be an initial allocation to that fund of $20 billion, and it will absorb the Communications Fund. This will attack some very important areas: ports, roads and broadband just to name a few. And they are not confined to the coast; they are for the whole of Australia, for regional Australia—to contribute to the development of our economy and to ensure that we have a healthy economy into the future. To simply describe this as high-taxing is unreal. (Time expired)