Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It is not. Labor are stuck in a time warp. You have become a theme park for social democratic failure. Just like the British Labour Party, just like the social democratic parties across Western Europe: all you can do is tax and spend. No other policy agenda exists except more and more debt, and it is awful. One great thing about Mr Whitlam—and I know we criticise Mr Whitlam—was he cut tariffs. Do you know what he said? He said, 'Tariffs are a tax on working people.' And do you know what? Mr Whitlam was right. He took some tough decisions, and for that he is to be congratulated. But today's party is certainly not the Hawke and Keating party and is not even the party of Mr Whitlam; it is more the party of Watson, Scullin and Curtin. Labor's near future looks a lot like their distant past, and that is not a good thing for the Labor Party and it is not a good thing for our country. It is worrying: Labor want to save the Toyota Camry while being stuck with an FJ Holden mentality, and that is awful.

I remember Senator Madigan's first speech for the Democratic Labor Party. He said in his maiden speech that there were good Labor governments, and I accept that—you have heard me say that before; I accept that—but there is nothing worse for Australia than a bad Labor government. We experienced that for six years. The great reforming ministers—Mr Hawke, Mr Keating and in this chamber, as you will recall, Steve, Senator Button and Senator Walsh—made tough decisions. I respect that. I respect it because it is not easy. I remember that when I was at university they cut government spending, particularly in the mid to late 1980s. They cut wages growth, with the accord and with the trade union movement.

Senator Button had the car plan, which honourable senators will recall. You can argue about the timing. I think there were arguments between the Labor Party and the coalition about how quickly it should all happen. But the bottom line is that the direction was the right direction. Senator Button said that, slowly, over a 10-year period or so, assistance to the car industry should be reduced. The direction of the reform was correct. The timing—okay—there is debate about.

I remember that Senator Walsh even convinced the Hawke cabinet that university fees should be introduced. Of course, the left of the Liberal Party went berserk, as they always do, 'This will stop students having access to university.' In fact, what happened? The Labor Party, and Senator Walsh, did the right thing. Three times more young Australians go to university now than did 30 years ago, when I went. It is a tribute to Senator Walsh that he did that. Money coming into government coffers has enabled our community to have so many university places for young Australians who otherwise would not have gone to university.

So I am not here just to trash the Australian Labor Party. I actually think they have done some very good things in the past. Australia is a much, much better country now than it was in the 1970s and a lot of that is due to what Mr Hawke, Mr Keating and the relevant ministers did during that period. It is a much better country.

Senator Xenophon mentioned Donald Horne, who said that Australia is a great country run by second-class people. I disagree. Both the Australian Labor Party and the coalition—the coalition backed Labor on this—reduced tariffs and unleashed the dollar, and there was significant macroeconomic reform in the eighties. Both parties endorsed it. And you know what—the public did not like it, because it was painful. I accept that—it was painful. Acting Deputy President Boyce, you would remember it. It was painful and things were awful for a while, but that restructuring of the economy set up Australia for 30 years of uninterrupted growth. We are the miracle economy. Without getting into the partisan debate about who deserves what, the bottom line is that, despite what Donald Horne said, from 1983 to 2007 there were remarkable, reforming governments that made this country and its economy the envy of the entire world.

This country is not run by second raters, either Labor or coalition. That is rubbish. We did things that parliaments in Western Europe and the United States could not and would not do. They did not have the courage to do those things. I remember well, again going back to the 1980s, the then Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, saying that Australia would be the 'poor white trash of Asia', that it would never be able to restructure its economy. Honourable senators will remember that. That is not what happened. We had the courage in this country, from 1983 up until 2007, to take really difficult decisions, and that set us up for a golden age.

I am frustrated now by this once-great reforming party. I am, as you know, Acting Deputy President, one of the more vociferous and vocal critics of the Australian Labor Party in this place; I am no shrinking violet. But I do not mind acknowledging success and performance when it arises. The problem today with the Australian Labor Party, under both Mr Rudd and Ms Gillard, is that they lost the reformer zeal. They just lost it. And what has happened? Now it is all about blaming the coalition for the failures of the car manufacturers. If only the Australian Labor Party could return to what it was. The truth is that in this country politicians were actually ahead of an unwilling public and a self-satisfied professoriate. We were far, far ahead of them.

I know the Australian Labor Party would not want to agree, but the big difference between us and the Labor Party, in that great reformist period of 1983 to 2007, was that we supported them in those major reforms. It did not help the farmers or many other people, at first. It was uncomfortable. But we supported the Labor Party, as we should have and as they deserved. But when the Howard government was going through its reformist period, every single time the Australian Labor Party thought they could garner some political traction, they objected to what the coalition government was doing. I recall the GST debate. This country had to reform its taxation system. A goods and services tax was appropriate. What did this lot do? Complained about it from go to whoa. The difference was that we supported Labor when tough decisions had to be made and when tough decisions were made they never supported us.