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

The challenges presented to the Australian economy and to workers and their families by the global economic recession are reaching right across our country. Our responsibility as a government, through the parliament, is to engage in proper investment in infrastructure and support for families, which reduce the impact on the economy and jobs overall. That is why the government has done what it has done. We do not apologise for it. It is the right course of action to have embarked upon, first of all, support for families, pensioners and first home buyers in the approach that we took at the end of last year.

I would say to the Leader of the National Party, who asked the question: did you vote for that package at the end of last year? I thought the Leader of the National Party, following the lead from the Leader of the Liberal Party last year on the question of the Economic Security Strategy, which contained $4.8 billion worth of payments to pensioners and, on top of that, some $1.2 billion in allocations to first home buyers, supported the package. My recollection is that the Nationals stated their support for it—that is, the package last year. I understand further that they then voted for it. But then they engaged in what is called the Liberal Party three-step: firstly, support it; secondly, seek to undermine it; and, thirdly, oppose it when the political opportunity presents itself. That is actually called the Liberal Party three-step, which is now the National Party three-step. That is what they said last year, and now they seek to distance themselves from the fact that they voted for that package last year. I simply make that a point of record in this place.

This year the government’s nation building plan, as we know, was voted down on three occasions by those opposite and their counterparts in the Senate. The government succeeded in obtaining the passage of that plan through the parliament. The whole objective is this: through this investment in infrastructure and support for families, to reduce the impact of the global economic recession on Australian workers and families. The difference is very plain in this place. What we have is a Liberal Party and a National Party who are seeking to take political advantage of the global economic recession. We have, of course, the Leader of the Liberal National Party in Queensland saying that the global economic recession is ‘peripheral’ to the state of Queensland. I find that remarkable. Look at the impact on Queensland revenues of the collapse that is occurring in mining exports around the world. Royalty revenues, including coal revenues, will fall by around $1.5 billion—from $3.5 billion in 2008-09 to around $2 billion in 2009-10—and there will be other impacts on the revenue as well. And the Leader of the Liberal National Party in Queensland says that this impact on budget caused by the global economic recession is peripheral! I assume that the Liberal and National parties in this place agree with him. Is that correct?

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