Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This address-in-reply debate presents an opportunity to reflect on the remarkable level of activity of the Rudd government to date. I would like to begin by reflecting on what was the extraordinary opening week of the 42nd Parliament, with the historic apology and acknowledgement of the sorrow we all express to Indigenous people on behalf of the Australian parliament for the stolen generation.

It was quite an emotional day for many people, but for my part it was something that was long overdue. There was a sense in the Canberra community that at last a great wrong was set right and that it was the beginning of an extensive program of public policy to try and rectify the injustices and inequities that still exist with respect to the Indigenous peoples of Australia.

I would also like to mention the significance of the welcome to country that occurred in the Members’ Hall of Parliament House on that day. It has been a feature of many a state and territory government, but I particularly acknowledge the efforts of the Stanhope Labor government here in the ACT and their welcome to country and acknowledgement of the Ngunawal elders. To see our very dear friend Matilda House participate in this very formal way in the opening of parliament was a wonderful moment, and one that I found very moving.

Members of the Rudd Labor government are all committed to make sure that the apology was the beginning of a fresh start. It is about forging a new partnership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and a very specific strategy to close the gap on key health, education and employment differentials that exist. I also acknowledge the bipartisan nature of the commitments made on the day of the national apology, and look forward to working constructively with all parties represented in both houses of parliament to make this fresh start a reality.

Along with the other ACT senator, Senator Humphries, and my colleagues in the other place, it is a privilege to represent the Australian Capital Territory and the nation’s capital. With only five years to go until the centenary of the national capital it is appropriate to reflect upon some of the principles and efforts made that led to the creation of Canberra. One of the motivations was to resolve, once and for all, some of the historic rivalries between the states and create a national capital so that Australians could feel that there was once place that was truly representative of them all. Obviously, the parliament is the greatest symbol of our democracy in that regard, but its home here in Canberra is a very tangible symbol of what it is to be a Commonwealth—a federated democracy. The privilege we have in representing this particular constituency is something that is not lost on me, nor on my colleagues. Back then, Canberra very much represented a fresh start and there is some relationship with the fresh start that we all felt and participated in at the beginning of this 42nd Parliament—embarking on a concerted effort to resolve those inequities that exist with our Indigenous population.

Reflecting on the last 11 years, one negative was the sore point for many Canberrans that the former Prime Minister, Mr Howard, chose not to live in Canberra. This is something that echoed back to me throughout the 11½ years that they were in government: people here in Canberra, and elsewhere, took personal offence to this. Whatever justifications the Prime Minister may have had at the beginning, they were certainly not the same justifications he could rely upon at the end of his term. That continuing, very powerful symbolic rejection of Canberra as the personal home of the Prime Minister and the home of our federated democracy really delved its way deeply into the psyche of many Canberrans and also people beyond our borders.

I was extremely thrilled and proud to see that there were no such inhibitions on behalf of Mr Rudd, our Prime Minister, and his family. I have enjoyed the commentary about their settling into Canberra as their home and know the excitement of many Canberrans on seeing the Rudds or the Prime Minister out and about on our streets. It is something that we are really lucky to have as a community. It is part and parcel of the wonderful combination of being such a diverse and vibrant community in our own right and yet having this very grave and important responsibility of being the national capital.

The Rudd Labor government has hit the ground running, working hard to take on the challenges left to us by what can only be described as a lazy and complacent government. There are very specific issues of neglect which I will comment on in due course. Firstly, I would like to acknowledge some of the initiatives that have been taken by the Rudd government in the first 100 days.

I have already mentioned the primary importance of the national apology, and another very important first step was to ratify the Kyoto protocol. It was just yesterday that the 90 days ticked over and we are formally part of the global community working together to fight the particular challenge of global warming and climate change. Finally, we are part of that movement and we, as a government, recognise the need for very specific and decisive action at all levels, even at the very micro level of households and communities. Every sphere of government has a role to play. Local government has, in many respects, driven a lot of the community based initiatives with respect to managing energy consumption, waste management and design of more energy efficient communities. State governments have led the way in committing to the specific goals with respect to energy conservation and climate change. Now, finally, that national sentiment is wrapped up and reflected in the policies of the federal government—the Rudd Labor government, post their election in 2007.

Not least of the Rudd government’s initiatives is the introduction into the federal parliament of the Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Bill 2008, through which the government is replacing the unfair Work Choices laws with a new workplace relations system that delivers fairness for employees, flexibility for employers and long-term productivity growth for our economy. I will come back to the issue of productivity growth shortly. But I would like to take this opportunity to say to all those working Australians who found it within their hearts and minds to focus on the issue of workplace relations leading up to the last election that it was without doubt a significant factor in the outcome of the election. The line had been crossed on what most Australians considered to be a fair and sensible balance in our workplace and industrial relations system. I think the outcome of the election showed that, in the minds of most Australians, the Howard government had crossed the line for what was acceptable. It has been quite fascinating to watch some of the convolutions of the opposition since this bill has been in parliament over how they will respond to it. I think they know, deep down in their hearts, that their policy was extreme. It frightened people. It was excessive. It was ideological. And it certainly had no place in the practical, good operation of a healthy and growing economy in the 21st century.

When the Rudd government won office it inherited inflation at its highest level in 16 years and interest rates at the second highest level amongst advanced economies. We now know that, while the Howard government was asleep at the wheel, our productivity growth was falling and, slowly but steadily, inflation was again let loose in the Australian economy, resulting in numbers for Australia that are significantly above those for most OECD economies. So it is not surprising that the Rudd government moved immediately to make fighting inflation an absolute priority. We are now implementing a five-point plan on inflation, designed very specifically to put downward pressure on interest rates. I will run through those points briefly: strong budget surpluses achieved by reducing waste in government spending, encouraging private savings, tackling skills shortages and infrastructure bottlenecks, and lifting productivity and workforce participation. All of these strategies require a great deal of diligence and focus, and that is what they will get from the Rudd government.

The inflation problem we are facing did not emerge overnight; it has been building for some time. For 1½ years underlying inflation had been running at around the upper end of the Reserve Bank’s two to three per cent inflation target band. So it is a fact that the inflation challenge we face today is a direct consequence of policy neglect in the past. The Howard government fuelled inflationary pressures in the economy by feeding demand with massive and unproductive spending bribes during the election period, and in the period leading up to that, whilst ignoring the growing infrastructure bottlenecks and, very importantly, the growing skills shortages which had the effect of choking capacity in the economy. For over a decade, spending was not directed to the challenges on the horizon or to boosting the productive capacity of our economy. I recall that even in the late 90s, in the first two terms of the Howard government, the need to invest in the skills that would drive our economic growth in the future was a raging issue. So this is not an issue that the former government, now the opposition, can say snuck up on them. On the Labor side we had a consistent commentary right through the period of the Howard government about the need to invest in skills, in trades, in education and higher education in order to set ourselves up to make the most of the economic growth opportunities that would present themselves in the global economy in the 21st century. But the then government’s spending was not directed to those urgent needs and priorities. They presided over an unprecedented boom off the back of record terms of trade but failed to make those critical investments in skills, as I have mentioned, and also in infrastructure.

We know that with an economy operating at close to full capacity the only way we will be able to achieve sustained improvement in incomes over time is to direct our policy efforts towards expanding the productive capacity of the economy. A decade of neglect of the twin investment deficits, in infrastructure and in skills, has meant that our economy has been ill-prepared to deal with the demand surge flowing from the terms of trade boom. The best platform for economic prosperity in the long term is a well-educated population and a skilled workforce. We know that, and that is why the Rudd government has begun implementing its program for an education revolution—from early learning in schools, to primary and high school education, to tech colleges and universities, to research and development and innovation policy. It is part of the urgent needs of this country that we were talking about back when I was involved in the Knowledge Nation investigations under a previous leader of Labor—