Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Hansard source

The good senator from New England has noticed. But, I have to say, I have had a fair bit to do with Queensland. In my current role as the Parliamentary Secretary for Government Service Delivery I have been working with the Queensland government on the rollout of the stimulus package. I was actually up there last Friday, meeting with officials of the government, and I can inform the Senate that the Queensland government is making great progress in the rolling out of infrastructure projects as part of the Nation Building and Jobs Plan. That is very good to see, because it will mean Queensland jobs are protected and Queensland jobs are supported.

But, going back to the global recession, what Senator Brandis has ignored is the fact that we are going through one of the most serious economic downturns since the Great Depression. Overseas now they are calling this the ‘Great Recession’—it is that bad. The effect it is having on the federal budget, the effect that it is having on the Queensland budget, cannot be overstated.

It was interesting to hear the Leader of the Liberal National Party, Lawrence Springborg, actually talk about the recession. When I was up in Queensland I saw an ad where he was talking about the economic circumstances that his state confronts. Admittedly, it was an ad from the Labor Party, but it was his words. It had President Obama talking about the global recession. It had the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom talking about the global recession and how serious it is. It had the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, talking about the seriousness of the situation. Then it went to Lawrence Springborg. His quote went something like, ‘This is not the Great Depression; this is not even a recession.’ That is the way the LNP view the economic downturn. That is the way those on the opposite side of the chamber view the economic downturn. Malcolm Turnbull said something very similar when he said that we were overhyping the global downturn.

Queensland has experienced a period of unparalleled prosperity. We all know that, and Senator Brandis made reference to it. Most of this growth was due to growth in the developing world, a once-in-a-lifetime mining boom and a boom in trading partners—in China, in Japan, in Korea, in Singapore, in Taiwan. When Labor was elected in Queensland unemployment was at 8.7 per cent; now it is 4.75 per cent. Queensland in fact has outpaced the nation’s growth for the last 12 years, and it will do it again this year. At the same time the Queensland government, through former Premier Peter Beattie and Premier Anna Bligh, has recorded record surpluses. Senator Brandis asked the question: ‘Where has the money gone?’ I will answer that for him. While Queensland has been experiencing the best of the mining boom, it has also been experiencing a population boom. Southerners from across the country have been flocking to Queensland because the state has been doing so well, with over 1,000 people moving north each week at its peak. That is a testament to the work that the Queensland government has been doing and the infrastructure that it has been building—the schools, the hospitals, the roads.

But there is a flipside to growth, and there is certainly a flipside to population growth. It means stress: stress on your infrastructure, stress on your hospitals, stress on your schools, stress on your roads, stress on your rail lines. There is no doubt about it: Queensland has been under stress—and it has had to invest heavily to keep up with the population growth. Queensland’s infrastructure spend has been at, and will be going forward at, record levels—something like $17 billion right now.

However, given this level of infrastructure spending to meet the growing needs of the population and given the global downturn becoming a global recession, they have been caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. They have suffered more than any other state due to a drop in demand from China and India. Queensland’s largest trading partners are now deeply in recession. Japan, Singapore, the United States and key trading partners South Korea, Taiwan and China have had huge cuts to their growth rates.

So it is easy to see where the money has gone. On one side the money is going into infrastructure and on the other side they have had a big cut in their mining royalties and their company taxation due to the global financial crisis. It is as simple as that, Senator Brandis, and your musings that somehow the Queensland government has been irresponsible to invest in infrastructure and jobs are simply untrue and tell a tale that bears no resemblance to reality.

There are two choices that a government can face in a situation like this: one—