Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am delighted to stand to contrast the incompetence of previous Labor governments and the absolute competence of coalition governments, on this occasion led by the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull. This question is all about not the government of the day but what the alternative might be should the coalition not be returned. It is necessary to examine the past because the best predictor of future behaviour and future performance is always past behaviour and past performance. What I will be speaking to, of course, is the situation of a measured, thinking, calculating and consultative government as opposed to that from the past.

These figures really go to the performance of the last government compared to the coalition government. In this case it was the coalition government leading up to 2007-08, when John Howard regrettably lost government and—unfortunately for the people of Australia—Labor had six years. The budget position when the coalition left government was a surplus of $20 billion. It became a $47 billion deficit. In the average budget position we were in surplus to the tune of $8 billion. That went out to $40 billion deficit. On government debt: there was a surplus of $45 billion in 2007-08. The debt went out to $192 billion and gross debt to $310 billion. So the question is: who is competent to run this country? Who is competent to contain expenditure? We saw that the coalition had 23.1 per cent of GDP in government spending, and, when Labor lost government in 2013, it had jumped up to 26 per cent.

You have to start to have a look at where we are vis-a-vis the rest of the world. Once again, these stats are uncomfortable for our opponents on the other side, but here they are. In the global scene of all countries, in 2007-08, on government wastefulness, under the coalition government we were 10th best in the world in that space. We dropped to be 56th. On the balancing of the budget, we were 38th, and under Labor ended up at 75th. On our debt, we were the 16th best country in 2007-08, and we went to 34th under the then finance minister, sitting opposite me.

Let us talk about pay and productivity. You would have thought that was an area of keen interest to Labor. We were the 40th best country in the world. It is a disappointment that we were only 40th; we should have been better than that at the end of the Howard government. But, at the end of the Labor government, in the global sphere we had dropped from 40th to be 113th. In hiring and firing practices, we declined from 63rd best in the world to 137th. Even in construction, the quality of our infrastructure construction, we dropped from being 21st best in the world to 34th under Labor. In government regulation, we were 68th, and that is not acceptable. We should not have been 68th. But we descended to be 128th. On tax as a percentage of profit, we declined from being 83rd to 109th in the world.

It is all about communication. It is all about consultation. It is all about a mature way of going about the management of the country. I have spoken before in this place about the knee jerk of the $900 and $1,200 cheques paid out by then Prime Minister Rudd to avoid a recession in December 2009 and March 2010. Those of us who have sat in Senate inquiries since then know where those funds went. They went into poker machines. They went into Chinese-made televisions and other whitegoods. And, according to nursing sisters who have told me, they went into drugs and alcohol, as measured by the increase in the incidence of accidents and emergencies at the major hospitals around Australia on Friday nights. That is the effect of that circumstance.

The mining tax in our home state was a tax which we stood here and said would never make any money and nor did it make any money. But what was more important was that the then Treasurer, Mr Swan, went out and spent the money before it ever came in and of course disappointed the Australian community because he could not honour that commitment. The carbon tax we have spoken about at great length in this place.

Let me record where the importance is for the Australian community—that is, in the jobs area, in jobs growth. It is the case that, since being elected since September 2013, we in government have seen the creation of more than 420,000 jobs. Last year alone 300,000 were created. Full-time, there were 158,000 jobs. Part-time employment increased. Female employment rose by 164,000 last year alone, a 3.1 per cent increase of which 93,000 were full-time jobs. Male employment we know went up by 2.2 per cent to a record high of 6.4 million male Australians working. Total unemployment had declined by 22,300 people. These are the critically important measures.

The previous speaker was right—there will be a budget in early May. It is when the budget comes down that tax will be presented. Let us have a look at the performance of the coalition in government in its efforts to turn around an in excess of $150 billion deficit, an in excess of $600 billion debt that we are now borrowing $1.2 billion every month just to pay the interest on. How often do we stand or sit in this place and hear about the need for expenditure in different areas? Every day, all the time. You think to yourself, 'Gee, if only we had that $1.2 billion every month that we are borrowing offshore to pay the interest on a debt that did not exist in 2007.'

But this government, in its 2½ years, has already improved the budget position by some $68 billion. We have spent $50 billion repairing the budget. Where is the economic failure in that? I have already mentioned the new jobs that we have created. There are 700 new jobs a day created under this government. We are outperforming the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and every other G7 country. Job advertisements are up 15 per cent. These are the sorts of figures that will be asking the Australian people to reflect on. We speak of tax in the budget that we are currently dealing with. We know, under then Minister Billson, we saw $3.25 billion in tax cuts for small business and $1.75 billion in accelerated depreciation measures, and we are seeing the benefits of that injection now—$6.8 billion in job activities, the new employment services system.

In the time left available to me, I do want to speak again about negative gearing as it has been presented by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Shorten. I say this with deep concern. The property sector is 11½ per cent of our national wealth. It creates over a million jobs a year, more than mining and manufacturing. We know there are 840,000 Australians with taxable incomes below $80,000 who negatively gear. And these are not the 'top of the wozza' earners you hear Senator Cameron going on about but 540,000 teachers, 52,000 retail workers, 36,000 nurses and midwives, and 200,000 hospitality workers. But as has been explained here this afternoon, it has only just come out that it is not just negative gearing on housing but what has whistled up underneath it—negative gearing for the purchases of shares, which will now no longer be able to be undertaken.

I know over that side you hate small business. You do not, Acting Deputy President Sterle; you were one but I do not quite know why you are on your side. But the simple fact of the matter is if somebody purchases a commercial building to open a retail business, they will no longer be able to claim the costs of establishing and running that business, vis-a-vis the negative gearing on that property, against their taxable losses in the years in which it is incurred. So we will have a situation where there will not be the encouragement to invest. We know this nonsense about negative gearing on new dwellings. What happens when the dwelling is sold? It will be sold to somebody who will not be a recipient of negative gearing so we will see an increase in rentals. It is too important for the running of this country to allow people who have no competence in economic management to be given the purse strings because past performance from 2007 to 2013 tells us where the country will end up—broke. (Time expired)