Matt Thistlethwaite (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Fifield pontificated that the position of the Australian economy at the moment is a direct result of decisions made by this government. By George, I agree with him! The position of the Australian economy at the moment is in fact directly related to decisions made by this government. Let us look at the position of the Australian economy. Unemployment, at 5.1 per cent, is almost half that of Europe and the United States. Interest rates in this country, at 3.5 per cent, are lower than they ever were under the Howard government, and inflation is under three per cent. Since this government came to office in 2007, 800,000 jobs have been created. More people are in work in Australia than ever before. Our debt levels are eight per cent of GDP, which is lower than most averages throughout Europe and, of course, the United States. How many businesses in this country have a level of debt less than 10 per cent? How many households have a level of debt less than 10 per cent? Not too many. This government gets a big tick when it comes to management of the debt situation.

Spending as a proportion of GDP is lower than it ever was under the Howard government. We managed to be one of the very few economies to avoid recession during the global financial crisis. So when Senator Fifield talks about the decisions of this government and their bearing on the economy, we are proud to stand on our record of economic management. But do not take it from me; take it from the independent experts. Today, yet again, Standard & Poors have reaffirmed this nation's AAA credit rating—a rolled-gold tick of approval for this government's management of our economy, the strength of our economy, the low levels of debt, the strong budgetary position and the Gillard government's strong management of our economy.

I find it highly hypocritical for those opposite to come into this chamber today and criticise the government for its budgetary position, particularly given that they refused to announce many of their election promises and have them costed. They refused to take part in the independent process of verification of election costings that was set up under the former Howard government by Treasurer Costello and is now overseen by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office. So they are completely hypocritical in coming into this chamber and criticising this government for its fiscal position and management of our nation's budget.

There is also the issue of who the government manages the economy for, and we see this in many of the government's decisions, such as introducing a minerals resource rent tax to ensure that the benefits of the mining boom are spread evenly amongst our economy and workers. The private health insurance rebate has been made much fairer under Labor. We are working towards the provision of a national disability insurance scheme and we are delivering increases in funding to education. These measures are completely opposed by the coalition.

We can see, in the management of the states, how the coalition would approach budgets should they come to government federally. The Newman government in Queensland cut 14,000 jobs from the public service. And these are not back-of-house jobs but important front-line jobs: nurses, teachers, doctors, palliative care workers and firefighters have all been cut because of the Newman government's decisions relating to their budget.

In New South Wales they have cut $1.7 billion from education, with every student in every school to be affected; and they have cut $3 billion from health. In Victoria, they have taken an axe to the TAFE system and vocational education and training. And they come into this chamber and lecture this government, which has just had its management of the economy and our nation's budgetary position reaffirmed with a AAA credit rating. They criticise this government's fiscal management and fiscal rectitude—and this is from the mob whose accountants at the last election ended up being fined, who get a catering company to do their costings and who will not commit to the Charter of Budget Honesty.