Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Abetz, you should appreciate this. Governments can make a difference, if they are prepared to act quickly and act boldly. But the opposition is offering us the alternative: delay and timidity. The alternative to this government’s plan will only guarantee that Australian workers and businesses feel the full devastating impact of the global recession. It is a recipe for accelerating the decline in government revenues. It is a recipe for escalating the cost of relieving hardship. It is a sure-fire recipe for weakening the national balance sheet.

Of course, their position is not about economic responsibility. I find it incredible that the opposition can turn their backs on what they said was the great Menzies tradition—the tradition of economic responsibility. They have turned their backs on it. That is why we have seen a 20 per cent drop in their ratings in terms of who can manage the economy. That is because the public is beginning to understand that the opposition is economically irresponsible. They are about dogma. They are about petty politics. They are about killing hope for a headline. They are about burning down the house so that they can feel an inner glow.

The government cannot and will not stand back and let this happen. It will fight. It will fight every step of the way to get this plan through. We owe that to Australian workers, we owe it to their families, we owe it to Australian businesses and we owe it to the Australian people. It is their interests that should be paramount at this time. That is why we accepted constructive amendments proposed by the Greens, that is why we are prepared to accept modifications to ensure this package is passed through this chamber and that is why we have created so many measures since October. It is very much along that line of thinking. We have created 10,000 structural adjustment places under the Productivity Places Program to retrain workers displaced as a result of the global meltdown. Labor always stands ready to support the unemployed. But our first priority is to reduce the risk of people losing their jobs in the first place, and that is what this plan is all about. The plan is about maintaining the levels of economic activity to minimise the risks of job losses.

According to the economic orthodoxy that has prevailed for so long in this country, we should not be doing any of this. According to the neoliberal theorists—the views that dominate the position of the Liberal Party—we should entrust our fate to some invisible hand, no matter how long the jobless queues grow, no matter how many businesses go bust, no matter how much wealth is destroyed. The government reject this view, as do economists around the world. They understand the need for timely action.

We do call upon all senators in this chamber to acknowledge that simple fact: we need timely action, urgent action. We believe that there is a central role for government in regulating markets and providing public goods. We believe that we have a moral responsibility to ensure the prosperity of our people. We believe that we have an obligation to pursue this course of action to minimise the level of social hardship, to minimise the job losses, to minimise the levels of economic distress. Governments cannot abdicate their responsibility for maintaining economic stability. It is precisely the failures of governments to discharge this responsibility that has led to this crisis. The first duty of any government is to protect its people and that includes protecting them from the worst excesses of extreme capitalism.

That is what the government are doing. We are about ensuring that this country moves through this storm as quickly as possible. We call upon all senators to acknowledge their responsibility to the Australian people to ensure that we are able to see the timely and urgent action that is required to prevent further economic distress and further harm to this country.