Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The resource investment which is expected to drive new business investment is at a record high in Australia as a percentage of GDP over the forecasted period of MYEFO. Across Australia's economy we have a very strong investment outlook, with something like $20 billion at an advanced stage boosting the productive capacity of our economy. As part of that, capital expenditure is set to rise as well by 45 per cent in 2012-13 after growing by 75 per cent last year. This is all part of the good work and the good policy decision-making that has been done by our Treasurer, Wayne Swan.

The opposition's stance makes it crystal clear that they would rather give a tax cut to Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer than help out everyday Australians. This is exactly what the MRRT is about: helping out everyday Australians and sharing the benefits of the mining boom. There is very much a stark contrast between Labor and the opposition—between those who stand up very much for working Australians and those opposite who kneel to the feet of vested interests; between those who believe that, when commodity prices are booming, all Australians should benefit and those opposite who want prosperity to belong to only a very fortunate few. That is a clear policy difference between Labor and the opposition. On any day, I am very proud to say that I stand on this side of the Senate chamber in support of Labor and our policy position to spread the benefits of the mining boom to all Australians. We are of course talking about resources in the ground that, as I said earlier, can only be dug up once.

Unfortunately, the opposition are clearly happy to follow the lead of Campbell Newman in Queensland and o cut services that Australians very much rely on. I think they are quite happy to do that. What we have seen unfold in Queensland is just a taste of what the country could expect under an Abbott led Liberal government, because it is the Liberal Party way. Every single measure in Newman's budget got the tick of approval from the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer. In September, the shadow Treasurer praised Campbell Newman's savage cuts, saying, in the Age newspaper:

… all strength to his right arm, he's showing incredible courage …

Fourteen thousand Queensland workers have been sacked by Campbell Newman, who specifically told them before the election that they had nothing to fear from a Campbell Newman led government—nothing to fear. If his government do not think losing your job is something to fear, then I do not know what they think having a livelihood, let alone a prosperous life, is all about. That is very much something to fear, having a government come in and slash and burn jobs right across the state—14,000 jobs in Queensland. This was a very cruel and destructive budget by a cruel and destructive Liberal Party, and I think this Queensland budget is just a sneak peek at the type of damage a federal Liberal Party government would do to Australian jobs and the Australian economy. Newman's wrecking-ball approach is straight out of the Liberal Party playbook, and it is exactly the same destructive approach that Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey would take to fill their $70 billion crater that they continue to be unable to explain to the Australian people how they will fill.

But they have alluded to one area in terms of filling their $70 billion black hole. Joe Hockey made the announcement that they would cut services for families and communities, including payments. Joe Hockey has confirmed that the coalition will dump the Schoolkids Bonus. It does not matter that families with kids at school need it. It is not the kind of thing that the coalition support, so of course it is easy to slash and burn the Schoolkids Bonus. This is Joe Hockey's 'end of the entitlement era', he claims—