Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2008-2009 and related bills. This is a nation-building budget, a budget for which this country has waited 11 long years. It is a budget which heralds a new and much needed era of strategic investment by the Australian government to harness future opportunities and deal with future challenges. The Rudd government has its eyes firmly on the future, with a passion to give all Australians a fair go. It is the first instalment of a coherent agenda to deal with the realities of 21st century life. It puts the importance of education and a smarter society squarely at the forefront.

Australia is the lucky country, but luck does not come by chance. To maximise our opportunities, we have to skill our workforce and engage in the increasing global competition for resources of labour. We cannot compete solely on the price of labour; that is a race to the bottom we do not want to win. Education is the key to going up the value-added chain and, after the last 10 years of neglect, it is a vision to applaud.

This is a budget which starts to deal with the big, over-the-horizon issues. It certainly is not a budget that this nation has seen for many years. It is not a short-term, electoral cycle budget, the likes of which we became accustomed to under the former Prime Minister and the member for Higgins. It is not the budget of an alcopop-swilling, divided, narcissistically disloyal, self-blogging, luxury-car-tax-defending, chair-sniffing Liberal Party. It is a budget that in fact acknowledges the challenges ahead and lays down the foundation to meet them. (Quorum formed) In infrastructure, health, education, training and environment, this is a budget which builds greater capacity for economic growth well into the future.

The Rudd government knows there are significant tests and challenges ahead, but we are determined to meet them all head-on as responsible economic managers planning for and investing in our future and supporting those Australians who are doing it tough. In the words of our Treasurer, this budget is:

A coherent package of reforms based on four principles: honouring our commitments; delivering for working families; investing in the future; and beginning the new era of economic responsibility we need, to sustain growth in challenging times.

This budget makes the down payment for future prosperity by making investments today for the economy of tomorrow. This budget meets the government’s commitments and begins a new era of responsible long-term investment to strengthen our economy, fight inflation and meet the future from a position of strength.

This budget has been delivered in times far more testing than those faced by the previous government, not only because of the inflation legacy they left us but also because of the more uncertain international economic outlook as a consequence of the credit crunch and the impact on the outlook for economic growth, in the United States in particular. Of course, some of the decisions included in this year’s budget have been made even harder because of the negligence of the previous administration. That the decisions were hard, however, did not stop the Treasurer from making them, and that is the true mark of a responsible economic manager. This government has been single minded in laying the foundations for Australia’s future. In contrast to the previous government’s reckless pork barrelling and blatant vote grabbing, this government is investing in priority areas of education, health and environment to build prosperity in the future. We are implementing our election commitments in areas like health, child care and education to meet the needs of a modern Australia while delivering for families. The new spending in 2008-09 is offset by spending cuts—the tough decisions which were not the hallmark of the previous government.

We must never forget that workers and families are the backbone of our economy. Our $55 billion Working Families Support Package rewards families for their hard work and helps them cope with the rising costs of living. In a few short months, the Rudd Labor government has earned the respect of commentators and the electorate alike by tackling the hard issues. In this budget the government has dealt head-on with the acceleration of inflation and the tightening of domestic financial conditions. These conditions are in part, I believe, a direct consequence of the Howard government’s sustained underinvestment in physical and social infrastructure in preference for short-term spending, synchronised—like the Chinese synchronised swimming team—with the electoral cycle.

In 1907, Justice Higgins, in making his famous Harvester judgement in my electorate of Maribyrnong, heard from workers’ wives about the difficulty in meeting everyday costs of living, including food, shelter and clothing, and about their consequential loss of dignity. One hundred years later, these issues are still plaguing many Australians. In the tradition of Justice Higgins and the fair go of Australia, the reforms in this budget will help people make ends meet, through tax cuts, the Working Families Support Package and other messages. This government is fighting inflation because it hurts the economy and it hurts working families. That is why the government will deliver a strong surplus of 1.8 per cent of GDP, with every dollar of new spending in 2008 more than matched by spending cuts. Growth and real spending will be 1.1 per cent in 2008-09—the lowest rate for nine years. Over four years, this budget makes savings of $33.3 billion, including no less than $7.3 billion in 2008-09. We understand a strong surplus is required to bear down on inflationary pressures in the economy; to provide funds for long-term investment in the infrastructure, education, training, health and hospital needs of the nation; and to ensure a strong budget at a time of heightened uncertainty in the global economy. I understand Australia’s greatest resource is our people. Investing in people, in their health, their skills and their families, is the only path to a successful future and a more modern, productive economy. That is where the government has squarely aimed this budget—and not a minute too soon, as the Howard government, asleep at the wheel, failed to ensure that Australia trained enough new or existing workers to keep up with the skill demands that have been placed on the Australian economy and its workers.

There is unprecedented demand for Australia’s resources on the back of growing global prosperity. Our mineral and energy resources are enjoying record prices. Our iron, steel, alumina and aluminium exports are contributing to building and shaping the future global prosperity. Our economy, as a consequence, has been growing at a steady clip for the last 16 years. But the previous government failed to invest over this period, and it is not a mistake the Rudd government will make. Our government is focusing on improving productivity by investing in skills and infrastructure and encouraging participation. This budget deals with the three Ps which hold the key to Australia’s future prosperity: productivity, participation and population. Higher productivity leads to higher real GDP and higher real wages, while increased participation obviously means employment and real GDP growth. Productivity growth means we can produce more goods and services with the same resources and is the key to improving living standards.

The budget has a range of measures aimed at building economic capacity to maximise Australia’s fortunes and deal with both the current and future challenges. Productivity has averaged 1.4 per cent per annum over the past five years—lower than any other five-year period in the last decade and a half. This slowdown has increased price pressures, as firms seek to recover higher input costs. The budget starts to redress this underachievement. In fact, the number of new funds—from the building fund to the Health and Hospitals Fund, to the Education Investment Fund—shows at last a determination to save and invest in Australia’s future. Indeed, in 2008-09, Infrastructure Australia will clear the bottlenecks left by the previous government, complete a national infrastructure audit and develop an infrastructure priority list to guide public and private investment. And it will develop best practice guidelines for public-private partnerships.

Business needs flexibility in the workplace to boost productivity, and employees need job security, the protection of minimum conditions and time with family. The government’s workplace relations laws provide both fairness and flexibility, things the previous government’s Work Choices promised but, as thousands of Australians know to their cost, spectacularly failed to deliver.

We can export more than iron ore to China, because of Australia’s world-class funds management industry. A funds management industry built up by a strong superannuation industry, built as a result of the foresight of the Hawke and Keating Labor governments and with the contribution of Mr Bill Kelty, former Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions. In what key business leaders have called a vote of confidence for the fund management industry, changes in the financial services industry will benefit all Australians by diversifying the economy and by providing opportunities in knowledge and financial innovation jobs, making Australia a financial services hub of the Asia-Pacific.

The government is also committed to improving skills through $1.9 billion to deliver up to 450,000 additional training places over the next number of years. The government is investing in the education and skills of all Australians in order to lift participation rates in the economy by establishing Skilling Australia for the Future, trade training centres in schools, increased skilled migration and Skills Australia.

As the budget is providing incentives for the population to improve the ability of people to contribute constructively in order to improve their overall living standards, we need to recognise that ageing is a particular longer term challenge facing the economy. As the population ages and the proportion of people in the workforce falls, the challenge will be to maintain economic growth while containing pressures on the budget. Whilst the ageing population may be a challenge, it is a challenge that we as a nation are lucky to have, as ageing certainly beats the alternative. This budget starts to put in place policies to address it, including the provision of incentives such as personal income tax cuts.

This government has reduced tax as a share of the GDP from the tax bandit years of the Howard government which saw revenue as 24.7 per cent of the national GDP in 2007-08 to 23.8 per cent in 2008-09. This meets the government’s medium-term objective of keeping taxation, as a share of GDP on average, below the high levels of the Howard government’s most recent years before it lost office at the last election. The government will fully implement its promise to reduce personal income tax by $47 billion over four years. This tax cut is directed at low- and middle-income families—the backbone of the economy, as I said earlier. They will allow low-income earners, including part-time workers, to keep more of their income, will ease the financial pressure on families and will provide further incentives to participate in the workforce. From 1 July 2008, a worker on $48,000—average weekly earnings—will receive a weekly tax cut of $20, and low-income workers receiving $14,000 or less will pay no tax at all. In addition to the announced cuts in tax rates, the Henry review of Australia’s tax system is a welcome and long overdue initiative focusing on root and branch tax reform.

The budget also helps parents with care for their children and investment in their education. Access to high-quality child care plays an important role in improving children’s education and development and helps parents to choose to return to work. Childcare and education costs are addressed by lifting the childcare tax rebate from 30 per cent to 50 per cent—which is valued at $1.6 billion—and introducing a new education tax refund valued at $4.4 billion. The government is also improving housing affordability with a $2.2 billion package through the First Home Saver Account, the National Rental Affordability Scheme and the Housing Affordability Fund.

This government understands that all Australians are a valued and valuable part of our community, and this budget has been framed to ensure policies that are socially inclusive. Carers and older Australians make significant contributions to our society, and this budget reflects that commitment. To assist seniors and carers to meet rising costs, the Rudd government will provide one-off lump sum payments of $500 to eligible senior Australians, $1,000 to carer payment recipients and $600 to carer allowance recipients by 30 June 2008, at a cost of $1.8 billion. The government has also, for the first time, extended the utilities allowance to carer payment and disability support pension recipients and increased the following yearly allowances: the seniors concession allowance from $218 to $500 and the utilities allowance from $107.20 to $500.

I am also delighted that the government is introducing fairer assessment of the child carer payment from 1 July 2009, which will cost another $274 million over five years. As a result, an additional 19,000 carers of children with a severe disability are expected to be able to access the carer payment in 2009-10. Importantly, a further $20 million has been allocated to help families adjust when a child has experienced a catastrophic event such as a severe illness, a major disability or an injury due to an accident. Importantly, $100 million of capital funding will be provided to the states to build new supported accommodation for people with disabilities.

Our DNA is hard-wired to make sure our children have the best opportunities in life, and the government understands this. We understand the fear and anxiety of elderly parents of children with disabilities—parents who worry about the care of their child when they are no longer able to care for them themselves. Up to 35 new facilities will benefit approximately 200-plus people who do not have access to appropriate accommodation at this stage. It is a small first step, but a vital one which helps our most vulnerable citizens. I do believe that this government is united by a common desire to see every individual enjoy the longest life full of quality and meaning. I am excited by the opportunity this budget offers my constituency in the disability community, as I indicated in my first speech, not so that people with disability receive special treatment but so they receive the same treatment as everybody else—the rights which are theirs with the dignity that they deserve. This budget also provides for the development of a national disability strategy. Consultations will commence, and this strategy is another demonstration of leadership from this government in this area.

In conclusion, this budget has all the hallmarks of a true progressive Labor document. Ralph Waldo Emerson described the difference between American progressives and conservatives. He said:

Mankind … is divided between the party of Conservatism and the party of Innovation, between the Past and the Future, between Memory and Hope.

If we adapt his analysis to Australia, it is clear that Labor is the party of innovation, of hope and of the future. Arthur Schlesinger, speaking of the politics of hope, argued that in politics ‘Innovation is the salient energy; Conservatism the pause on the last movement.’ The concept of pause fitted the previous Howard government all too well. In thwarting the move to a republic, neutralising the hope for reconciliation, downplaying global warming and the importance of climate control, failing to secure and protect Australia’s long-term water resources and not addressing the productivity slide and the skills crisis, the conservatives sat back or slid backwards. The most extreme step, well beyond a mere pause, was the Work Choices laws, which returned Australia to the 1890s temporarily.

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