Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Just get onto the Rudd government’s agenda; it might do you good. It is 2008. We have seen almost nothing in South-East Queensland—as the member interjects—where one in seven Australians live, an area that is growing all the time. What about infrastructure in South-East Queensland delivered by the Howard government? There is almost nothing. It is the Rudd Labor government that is delivering the infrastructure that has made such a difference to South-East Queensland and to economic development for the future of this country. That is the reality.

The opposition cannot duck and dodge the fact that they mismanaged the economy. The reality is that for the last few years, under their leadership, the government kept increasing public expenditure, putting pressure on inflation. There were interest rate rises year after year, which put pressure on working families, carers, pensioners and those who were doing it tough in my electorate and electorates around the country. That is the reality.

They thought that working families had never been better off. That was their mantra. But through their legacy we have seen that there was inaction, inertia and ignorance both nationally and locally—certainly in my electorate. That was the reality under the tutelage of the now opposition. There was flatlining of productivity, rising inflation, skill shortages, infrastructure bottlenecks and warnings from the Reserve Bank. But they did nothing. There was declining expenditure on public hospitals and health. The member for Warringah, the former Minister for Health and Ageing, let it out of the bag just before the election when he admitted that the Howard government had failed in that regard. And there was a disinvestment in education compared to our OECD partners.

The reality is that those opposite failed when it came to economic leadership in this country and—guess what?—the worst example of their economic leadership was Work Choices. They are still devoted to it and they are still disciples of it. We have the Deputy Leader of the Opposition still fanning the flames and talking about the wonders of statutory individual contracts. They are still talking about it. If they came back and she sat on that bench on this side and the Leader of the Opposition were sitting where the Prime Minister sits, they would bring Work Choices back and it would drive down the wages and terms and conditions of working people in this country. That is what would happen.

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