Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's always enlightening to get a lecture from the Australian Labor Party around economic management.

Senator Polley interjecting—

No, it is. Often I have to prepare for a speech, but when I read the terms of this matter of public interest I was relaxed. I was totally relaxed because I can do this one straight off the cuff, Senator. Senator, what you should do—through you, Mr Acting Deputy President—is stay. You're going to get some real little lead ideas here about how to manage a good economy. Let's go back and reflect on the economy left for the Australian Labor Party at the end of Prime Minister Howard's reign. The debt was zero, for the first time in many decades. There was $60 billion dedicated to the Future Fund, and we had a healthy economy that was producing surplus after surplus.

The good senator raised the issue of surpluses. She said, 'We'll get more surpluses, bigger surpluses, quicker than this government.' Well, the last time we heard that—we didn't hear it once, we didn't hear it twice, we didn't hear it 10 or 20 times; we heard it 26 times! Twenty-six times the Labor Party declared, when they were in government, that they would produce surpluses. Of course, we know they didn't produce any. This is the party that decided the best investment this country could make, costing hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, was to put pink batts in the ceiling. This is a party that consistently demonstrates ignorance of the basics of economic management.

Let's talk about the attack made on the government with respect to reducing the amount of money—their money—that people have to pay the government in the form of taxation. It's not our money; it's their money. And what do they do with that money? I'll drop off to sleep here halfway through this, because I've had to say it here so many times. Corporations invest that money; that's what they do. That's what makes the economy go round. They invest it. They buy goods, they purchase services and employ people. They stimulate the economies in their regions, and then more people come off unemployment, which of course is a benefit to the nation and a benefit to the individual. Then they have a better standard of living; they can go and spend, and that promotes the economy further.

We know that employment is one of the cornerstones of a good economy. If you look at the figures under this government, you'll see that we've got the lowest unemployment rate in almost decades. Pound for pound, it's the lowest unemployment. They think I'm joking when I say that we are a party for the workers, but the coalition is now truly a party for the workers.