Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome this MPI because it provides another opportunity to discuss the economic and financial crisis facing the world, and the government’s response to it, although I must say it does surprise me that the shadow Treasurer lodged this MPI on the economic and financial issues facing the nation and waited until the last couple of minutes of her allotted 15 minutes before she chose to talk about them. Before she chose to talk about the economic and financial crisis facing the world, she spent 10 of her allotted 15 minutes taking cheap pot shots at the Prime Minister’s travel and cracking undergraduate jokes at the expense of the Prime Minister. The shadow Treasurer and the Leader of the Opposition talk about bipartisanship when it comes to economics and the financial crisis facing the world, and then the shadow Treasurer spends 10 minutes of her allotted time on the MPI—lodged by the shadow Treasurer—ignoring the financial crisis and the financial turmoil facing the world.

The government, of course, regards the financial turmoil facing the world with some seriousness. We regard the current events as being quite serious. We regard the failing of the world’s 18th largest company, the failing of a company as well known and as famous as Lehman Brothers, and the takeover of Merrill Lynch, as having implications for Australia, as having important implications for the world financial markets. The opposition talk about bipartisanship, but when they get this opportunity to talk about the challenges facing Australia and the appropriate policy responses, the alternative Treasurer of this nation takes cheap political pot shots about the Prime Minister’s travel and cracks undergraduate jokes. That is not going to do much for the shadow Treasurer’s economic credibility when all is said and done.

We can look at the financial crisis facing the world and the response of the Australian government, and we can look at the response of the opposition. We believe that one of the important responses that the opposition can provide if they are really interested in bipartisanship is to pass the federal government’s budget through the other house. In May the government substantially increased the size of the budget surplus to 1.8 per cent of gross domestic product, to put downward pressure on inflation and give the Reserve Bank the flexibility they need to deal with the inflationary problems in this nation. We all know why that was necessary, and of course just last week we saw the release of the Treasury advice to the former Treasurer that the IMF was concerned about the expansionary nature of the previous Treasurer’s fiscal policy. The Treasury was warning that the expansionary approach of the previous Treasurer would add to inflationary pressures and that the IMF shared that concern.

I would suggest to the shadow Treasurer, if the shadow Treasurer wants to be taken seriously about leadership, if the shadow Treasurer wants to be taken seriously about bipartisanship, if the shadow Treasurer wants her economic credibility to be respected, that the shadow Treasurer show some leadership and encourage the Liberal Party to pass the budget in the Senate, to pass the savings and revenue measures so important to ensuring we have the flexibility to deal with the financial crisis facing the world. Stop playing populist games, support the budget passing the Senate and support the important fiscal reforms that the government has embraced.

Another thing that is required here in these troublesome times is the promotion of confidence—confidence of the international markets in Australia and confidence domestically. Confidence has fallen in Australia, it is true, to 1990s levels, just as it has fallen in every country in the world, despite the claims of the Leader of the Opposition. Despite the valiant attempts of the new alternative Treasurer to ignore the fact that confidence has fallen to 1992 levels in every comparable country, we have seen confidence fall.

There are two areas that are important, as I say—confidence domestically and confidence internationally. It is important that the economic decision makers in the United States and other major nations, both in the public sector and in the private sector, understand the soundness of our economy, the soundness of the fundamentals, the importance of our terms of trade and the importance of the fact that, of the 12 of the 100 major banks in the world with AA ratings, four are located here in Australia. It is important that the Prime Minister take this opportunity to communicate with those leaders.

I know that the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the shadow Treasurer, want to take cheap political pot shots about this. We saw the Leader of the Opposition on Sunday, on the Laurie Oakes program, say this:

The question is he is spending more time overseas than any Prime Minister in our history. He’s spending more time overseas than his own foreign minister. Have we elected a prime minister or a prime tourist? That’s the question.

I would make two observations to the Leader of the Opposition and his deputy. The first is: show a bit of leadership. The second is: show a bit of honesty. If the Leader of the Opposition seriously wants to go on national television and claim that the Prime Minister travels more than any Prime Minister in history, he might want to explain to the Australian people why this Prime Minister has been overseas for 43 days this year when Prime Minister Howard was overseas for 64 days in 2002, 60 days in 2003 and 65 days in 2005. They claim that this Prime Minister spends more time overseas than any of his predecessors—except for the last one perhaps.

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