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

What the other side, in their bleating, conveniently overlook is that, what they inherited as a surplus in this country they managed to turn into an accumulated deficit of $200 billion, running towards $600 billion of debt. What that means is that we pay $1 billion a month in interest on our overseas debt. That is a new teaching hospital that we forgo every month as a result of the interest on the debt incurred by this crowd over there. That is $33 million a day. That is two new primary schools, seven days a week, that we are giving up because we are paying interest on money borrowed overseas. I will not listen to the nonsense being put forward by the other side when it comes to responsibility.

Let me come to the higher education sector. The Labor Party are opposing the changes. The fact that every vice-chancellor in Australia is now in favour, and the fact that the Labor Party in government lifted the caps on numbers but did not lift the cap on the capacity to deliver quality education, seems to have escaped them.

Senator Bilyk goes on about $100,000 degrees. It is time she went to school and learnt the cost of a four-year agriculture degree—at a cost of $16,000 a year—at one of Australia's top universities, UWA. As far as I know, four 16s are 64, not 100. Senator Carr, the shadow minister, continues to go on with this ridiculous statement.

But, of course, that is also affecting our international higher education sector. I remind you that international higher education is the fourth largest export income earner and indeed the highest non-commodity export income earner in this country, of some $16 billion. Why is it being put at risk? Because, internationally, the universities in our region and elsewhere are now perfectly capable of exceeding us in terms of quality. Why is it that the vice-chancellors are asking and begging the Labor Party and indeed the crossbenchers to pass the legislation? Ask yourselves that question. My good friend and colleague Senator Xenophon says, 'All we need is another inquiry.'

We have had the Bradley inquiry, commissioned by Labor. We had the department's inquiry, in 2009. We had the Behrendt inquiry, in 2011, commissioned by the Hon. Chris Evans. We had the Lomax-Smith inquiry, the Phillips inquiry, the Kwong Lee Dow and Braithwaite inquiry—how many more inquiries do we need before we actually move and pass this legislation?

I do remind you, Deputy President, and those who might be listening that this is the same Labor opposition, claiming chaos, division and dysfunction on our side, which actually brought into this place $5 billion of budget savings when it was in government, which were accepted by the coalition. What has this crowd done in opposition? It has simply opposed what were its own policies when it was in government and we are invited to come in here today and talk about chaos, division and dysfunction. We are a government about improving employment and the economic circumstances of this country.

Senator Lines interjecting—

I can explain exactly, through you, Deputy President, the three free trade agreements. Let me give you one illustration. The services sector in this country accounts for 70 per cent of our economy and yet only accounts for 17 per cent of export income. With respect to the Australia-China Free Trade Agreement, yes, the Chinese want our commodities. What the Chinese want more than anything else is our services. If we could increase the services sector's export-earning income, from 17 per cent up to 25 per cent, 30 per cent or more, you bet your life, through you, Deputy President, to Senator Lines, we would be in a position then where this country would be returning to the sort of stability and economic position we need to be in to achieve these goals.

I speak of international competitiveness. I speak about the offshore gas industry in my home state of Western Australia. There has been $200 billion of recent investment, a tremendous story. Gas prices are going down, as are oil prices and iron ore prices. They are going to adversely affect state and Commonwealth royalties. But we must remain internationally competitive. It is now costing $4,000 a tonne—and these are McKinsey's figures, not mine—to develop an offshore facility off WA. The cost of production in an equivalent field, the most recent one being the Sabine field, on the American side of the Gulf of Mexico, is not $4,000 a tonne but $1,500 a tonne. This is what we have to compete with internationally.

I am an optimist and I say that this is one of the greatest countries in the world, but we must get out there and understand that we do not exist in an international vacuum. We exist in the overall international economy. Greece is currently defaulting on its debt. We have Europe watching what will happen to Greece as it defaults. We have the powerhouse Germany, saying, 'We are not prepared to forgive you that $400 billion or $500 billion euros of debt.'

The United States of America, which, because it found cheap energy through shale gas, has now brought manufacturing back into its country. We see employment levels going up. But remember that we have $1 billion a month interest on our debt; the Americans are borrowing $1 billion per working day. Each year they are borrowing $250 billion each year.

We have phenomenal opportunities in this country. We must not as a Senate, as a country and as an economy be held back by an irresponsible opposition, which itself caused the economic malaise and demise. I finish with the words of Senator Fifield, 'You must have economic policy aligned to social policy if you wish to succeed.'