Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

If, in series 2 of The Hollowmen, we see a fiery senator from New South Wales, we will know what performance it has been modelled on. What we have just heard is like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz—that if you say something often enough you will make it true. But if there was one thing Senator Cameron did not mention throughout that presentation it was anything about unemployment. While he reeled off a series of statistics from the OECD—all could be misrepresented and twisted in any way—the one thing he did not mention was the 60,000 Australian families that are going to lose a job this year. Ben Chifley would be turning in his grave about a Labor government introducing policies that cost people jobs. The most basic stake in our society is having a job. He talked about the problems of the lack of investments. Who is responsible for the blockages around this country in roads, rail, ports and public sector investment? It is your mates in the state government. Western Australians in this country are going to get a better deal as of this week. They are going to get a government that does something right. But around this country the lack of investment in roads, railways, hospitals and schools has come as the result of state Labor governments blocking it and being held back by, and kowtowing to, sectional interests.

It is a pleasure today to rise following Senator Fifield. I have known him for a while. I too have never seen him given direct credit for the economy but I can now say: ‘Well done. I am a lot better off because of it!” The reality is this government inherited an economic dream: more than a decade of growth, highs of employment and lows of unemployment that were theoretically impossible a decade ago, and inflation over the previous decade that had averaged the dead middle of the band that the Reserve Bank targets. The Reserve Bank, mind you, gets to target this independently because of the independence we gave them, not like a former Treasurer in the other place who said he had the Reserve Bank’s governor in his back pocket and that he would actually make those decisions himself. That independence we gave them is seen in our performance over the last 10 years, along with a government that took its economic responsibility seriously. We had budget surpluses as far as the eye could see. Our government finances were the envy of the world—just as Senator Fifield outlined, we were the ‘wonder down under’ in terms of our economy. But since they came to office, this government have adopted a unique approach: rather than build confidence and rather than try to educate people about the challenges that you have to face daily in an economy, they actually decided to create a myth—a myth that they somehow had it tough.

Along with Senator Fifield, and I am sure most of my colleagues, we find presentations like Senator Cameron’s quite amusing. The reality is the people will never accept it because they know they were better off. This government has refused to accept that when you take office you take responsibility. Government is about making decisions, as Senator Fifield outlined, and it is about being held responsible for them. No-one ever said running a $1 trillion economy was easy. It is tough. It involves difficult decisions. But a government that came to office without any ideas other than returning favours to their union masters and parroting focus-group tested slogans like ‘working families’ has nothing to say for itself. It had no cause in getting here other than to get here itself. Conservative or responsible fiscal policy—as they claim to have—is not about increasing taxes. It is not about increasing taxes on someone who is having a Bundy and Coke. It is not about jumping up taxes on someone who buys a LandCruiser. It is actually about what the Liberal and National coalition did after 1996: applying a bit of rectitude towards government spending, redirecting priorities and taking tough decisions.

This government has done nothing other than talk the economy down. It has tried to create a false purpose, this false purpose being that they were faced with a crisis. In football terms, this Prime Minister and Treasurer ran onto the field at three-quarter time 15 goals ahead in the grand final and started running around telling their colleagues they were in a lot of trouble and could not get it home. The reason this economy is in trouble today is that this government, and this Treasurer and Prime Minister, have been running around telling everyone they are incapable of managing it. We agree with them. When it comes to talking down the economy the Treasurer’s performance has been quite extraordinary.