Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

My apologies, Mr Acting Deputy President. As always, we do not want to let the truth get in the way of a good smear campaign. I think Labor, particularly, has some really great form in this area. They twist the truth. I would like to draw the chamber's attention to another area where the ALP has been out and about—indeed it may even be the same minister as previously, now the shadow minister Kate Ellis. We have seen the ABC's Fact Check on school funding. The smear campaign that the ALP has been conducting about this particular aspect of policy, right throughout the nation, is erroneous. I would like to point Senator O'Neill particularly to check out the ABC Fact Check of Wednesday, 2 July 2014. It is free to a good home. There is some good reading in there. I think she will appreciate being availed of the facts of the smear campaign that the ALP has been conducting on behalf of the AEU over a number of months.

But I have digressed significantly from my outlining of the importance of removing regulatory burden for Australian businesses so they can get on with the business of hiring more Australians and addressing the productivity—the almost bankruptcy—of this country. Why is a deregulation agenda important? It is important because, in the five years from mid-2007, Australia's multifactor productivity declined by nearly three per cent. As I mentioned earlier, Chris Richardson and Ross Garnaut have already made reference to the importance of addressing the productivity issues throughout our economy.

The Productivity Commission has estimated that regulation compliance costs could amount to as much as four per cent of Australia's GDP. We heard so often through the carbon tax debates over the past few years, 'Oh, it is only one per cent', but add all that up and it is people's jobs on the line. To those opposite who deal in vagaries and ideologies, and who do not actually understand the real impact of one per cent on a business's bottom line, it means that it is fewer people that they can employ. At the end of the day, the difference between those on this side of the chamber and those on the other side of the chamber in our views on how best to address the challenges for our nation is that those on this side of the chamber will ensure that we have an economic system that ensures our egalitarian principles—and the principles of equity and fairness that have underpinned this nation for over 100 years—continue, because we will have a sustainable economic position on which to base those policy decisions, unlike the recklessness of those opposite.

Senator Polley interjecting—

Senator Polley, go for it. I am happy to entertain, at any time!