Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was extraordinarily pleased, but not at all surprised, to see that the issue of equality was the first issue raised by the ALP when we returned to parliament after the winter break. Clearly, the ALP and Bill Shorten feel like they have found themselves a winning organising theme to regain office at the next election, but this is a crusade; it is a false crusade. Shorten's inequality crusade appeals to the basest politics of envy—the politics that says someone has to do worse for you to do better. That is the road to political ruin. It is the ultimate embodiment of that Corbyn-esque world of populism and resentment. It appeals to the basest of emotion. I am surprised that the ALP would stoop this low, particularly when those opposite often recall the legacy of the Hawke-Keating years. This message, this slogan, repudiates all that was good in those years. Far be it for me to sing the praises of previous Labor governments, but let's think about that legacy. That legacy placed the primacy of importance on growing the economic pie by unshackling the economy. It floated the dollar, it removed capital controls, it deregulated the financial system, it reduced tariffs, it privatised government owned businesses and it retreated from centralised wage-fixing, and yet all that the opposition has is the rhetoric of inequality. It brings shame upon the legacy of previous Labor governments.

At that stage, Australia went from a position of having a per-capita income level that was around 20th in developed economies to being in the top five. It was a remarkable outcome for a reformist ALP government. But, in contrast, the rhetoric of the policy approach being adopted by the present Labor opposition could not be starker. Quite frankly, shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen should know better. After all, the empirical evidence is perfectly clear. The best way to reduce inequality is to ensure people get jobs. That is exactly what this government has been doing: 240,000 new jobs in the past financial year alone; 175,000 of those full time and more than 700,000 since this government came to power in 2013.

Imposing bigger tax burdens on high-income earners and businesses inevitably lead to less investment, less risk-taking, reduced work effort and, ultimately, fewer jobs. I, too, am going to mention Roger Wilkins, who is the deputy director of the Melbourne Institute and responsible for the HILDA survey. He said that he fears that popular focus on inequality may come at the expense of growth.

I do think this is a risk. I am wary of the debate degenerating into a zero-sum game where people fight over the spoils rather than increasing the spoils. The market-based system has delivered a lot of good stuff for our country and I have a concern this gets neglected.

That is exactly what may happen if we let this debate descend into the rhetoric of inequality and the politics of envy.

The best way to tackle inequality, we know, is to grow the pie. Don't redistribute it, don't cut it differently; grow the pie. The second way to do it is to ensure that essential services like health and education are guaranteed—unlike the politics of envy. We create the jobs of the future—nearly a quarter of a million jobs in the last 12 months. Jobs and growth for the Turnbull government is not a slogan; it is an outcome. Finally, we must consider tackling entrenched disadvantage at the root causes, not by redistributing income—tackling worklessness, tackling homelessness, tackling drug and alcohol addiction and tackling domestic violence, abuse and neglect. These are the issues that this government is focused on as the better path out of poverty traps—that entrenched impoverishedness. Prioritising redistribution over growth is shallow populism and quite to be expected from an opposition that is devoid of ideas.