Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. I have seen recent analysis of Australian productivity, some of it all right and some of it downright awful. The awful analysis that I have seen commenced on the AM program on 14 June 2007, when our Leader of the Opposition decided to take up the interviewer Chris Uhlmann by saying:

The premise of your question, that productivity growth, by the way, has been rising in recent years, is just plain wrong …

That is what he said: ‘just plain wrong’. And Chris Uhlmann said:

It’s in the national accounts.

…            …            …

Have you seen the recent national accounts?

Well, there was no answer to that question as to whether he had seen the recent national accounts, so Uhlmann tried it again:

Are you saying there’s no productivity growth in the recent national accounts?

… RUDD: … if you look at the budget papers …

The budget papers are not the national accounts. Uhlmann continued:

… the national accounts are the latest figures. Are you saying there is no productivity growth there?

At this moment, for those of you who watched cartoons when you were young, we have a moment when you hope someone pulls a lever and you just disappear into the ground. Here he is, on AM, saying that there has been no increase in productivity; he is asked about the national accounts, and it is clear that the Leader of the Opposition does not know what the national accounts are, let alone what they say. Somebody pull the lever and hope that he just disappears! What happened next is almost as instructive.

The Leader of the Opposition then goes back to his office, having been humiliated on AM, and he demands that someone give him the answer to the question that Chris Uhlmann asked him. I must say I was lucky enough to come into possession of this answer. It is called ‘Leader’s meeting policy brief’—topic: productivity; adviser: Tim Dixon, John O’Mahony and Ankit Kumar; and purpose: ‘To provide a response to the questions on productivity you were asked yesterday,’ on 14 June. It does not matter—it is only 24 hours late, but Tim Dixon, John O’Mahony and Ankit Kumar come up with the figures. I am pleased that this has been sent to the government, and I would like to record my appreciation, because what this shows is not only did he not know the answers but, when the answers came to him, what were they? The answers were that the government was right and he was wrong. Listen to this. This is what they say.

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