Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Coming from the member for North Sydney, who, at the beginning of this year, deliberately embarked upon a strategy to talk the Australian economy down, I find that a remarkable intervention on behalf of those opposite. He should reflect carefully on the statements he made earlier this year before he makes an intervention like that. Of course, for those opposite, it makes for uncomfortable tidings when their political and economic narrative, to the extent that they have one, goes to one organising principle: how do you talk the Australian economy down?

We are saying that, if you look at the private sectors’ capital investment record for the year just concluded, the forecast for the year ahead is for some $100 billion worth of capital investment by private firms in Australia, including the four or five examples which I have just read out. This causes you to conclude that the Australian private sector is getting on with the business of expanding its operations, notwithstanding the challenges which currently exist. The Commonwealth Bank’s chief economist, Michael Blythe, said that the capex data demonstrates:

... that the changes to business confidence and the slowdown in the first half of the year and concerns about the global credit crunch haven’t dented the positive story for Australia.

Of course, that does not fit the scenario which those opposite wish to construct. That is what the private sector is doing. We on this side of the House are a party and a government of nation building. We believe that we have a responsibility to partner with the private sector in building the nation. Those opposite—and how many times did we hear this from the member for Higgins when he was Treasurer of Australia—have no place, no role whatsoever, out there building the nation’s infrastructure. I remember one famous intervention when there was a debate in this place about whether urban water should be a legitimate product of national investment by the national government. What did the member for Higgins, the then Treasurer, say? He said: ‘Not my problem. Blame the states.’ It is always ‘blame the states’.

Our attitude is that the Australian people are fed up with one level of government blaming the other as to why the nation’s economic infrastructure is in such a poor state. Instead, they want the government of the nation to embark upon a rational investment strategy for the future. That is why our $76 billion nation-building program for the country will provide funds of $26 billion through AusLink 2 and $20 billion through the Building Australia Fund for transport, energy and water priorities. There will be $5 billion in a national broadband network. Those opposite would, I think, find it difficult to spell ‘broadband’, let alone construct one. We will invest $15 billion in education infrastructure through the Education Investment Fund and $11 billion through the health and hospitals infrastructure fund, which we have also created. This is a $76 billion plan for nation building. That is part of a strategy for Australia’s future. In this way, we are seeking to partner with the Australian private sector in building the nation. In this place, you can either choose to be shirkers like those opposite or you can get on with the business of building the nation. You can either lean on your shovel, as those opposite did for 12 years, or you can get on with the business of rolling up your sleeves and building the nation’s infrastructure.

Let me tell you that what we see through the capital expenditure data produced by the ABS is a private sector determined to get out there and build the nation’s infrastructure. We on this side of the House, the government, are determined to help build the nation’s infrastructure. We intend to do this road by road, port by port, cable by cable, university by university and trade skill by trade skill across the country, whereas those opposite simply have a script which says, ‘That’s not our problem.’ We say, for the nation, we intend to partner with the private sector in constructing the nation’s infrastructure. We are a government of nation building; those opposite have an excuse for inertia—inertia altogether.

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