Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

He is just showing the Australian people what he is made of—I am all for it. His vote goes down every time he speaks. It is the case that the budget deficit has doubled in the last 12 months. Forget about my economic statement in the last government. Even compared to this Treasurer's budget, the budget deficit has doubled over the last 12 months on this Treasurer's watch. When the budget deficit doubles, it may not be anybody's fault but the Treasurer's. But everybody has an opportunity make a contribution and that is what the parliament will do today because this Treasurer has doubled the budget deficit and that means difficult decisions are necessary.

The other point to make is that the government, through their tactics, decided to implement this by a regulation, which meant that if this particular instrument, the legislation moved by the Treasurer just a moment ago, is not passed by this House and in the other place then the excise collected over the last 12 months or so would need to be refunded. That is not necessarily a bad thing but it is a matter of who it would be refunded to. Would it be refunded to every motorist who has paid it? No, that would be impossible. There are no records of who has paid this increase in excise around the country. It would be refunded to the oil companies. While some people might feel comfortable writing a cheque for $123 million or so to Australia's large oil companies, I would not. So that presents the House and the other place with a conundrum, one which we are settling tonight by voting for this legislation so the $123 million is used for the benefit of the people of Australia, not refunded to the oil companies.

The final point is: as I said before, every council and every mayor has an infrastructure program ready to go, has projects ready to roll out. What we see when those projects roll out, because of these $1.1 billion, will be a stimulus package—much to the chagrin of the anti-Keynesian at the table representing the government. The government has recognised the need for a stimulus package with the instant asset write-off, which is time-limited—unlike the Labor Party's instant asset write-off when we were in office, which was permanent.

The government has in effect brought in a stimulus package. We know that economic growth is in need of a boost around the country. We know that the figures, despite the Treasurer's rhetoric, were concerning on many levels in the last iteration of the national accounts and we know that there is a need to stimulate investment, particularly in the non-mining sector, as Australia moves through the economic transition. The Labor Party will facilitate that by providing just over $1 billion to local governments to engage in infrastructure spending.

Infrastructure spending is very labour intensive. When a council is improving a road, building a new road, fixing an intersection or upgrading a facility, it takes workers. This is labour intensive. Consider the fact that our unemployment rate is higher than during the Global Financial Crisis; it is higher than countries which we normally compare ourselves with. When we got through the Global Financial Crisis with it lower than those countries and under this government's watch it has gone higher than those countries then there is a case for investment with a view to ensuring jobs for people right across the country in local government. So therefore the Labor Party will support this and support its passage through the House this evening.

This has not been an easy decision for the opposition. We thought about it long and hard. We thought about it through our various shadow cabinet committees and we dealt with it in the caucus morning. It was not an easy decision but government is not always about easy decisions and being in parliament is not about easy decisions; it is about fair decisions. We have secured this measure in return—the Labor Party made the suggestion to the government in good faith that the $1.1 billion should be invested in Roads to Recovery—and so I welcome the fact that within a couple of hours the Treasurer, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Finance had issued a press release accepting Labor's condition, which means that we are now in a position to facilitate its passage through the House. We look very much forward to this boost to infrastructure for local government in metropolitan Australia and in rural and regional Australia because the people of Australia and the motorists of Australia know that the roads of Australia very much need the investment.

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