Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The absolute hypocrisy of the Liberal Party, to come here and lecture us about interest rates when we had the promise in 2004 of keeping interest rates at record lows! What is the reality today? Interest rates are 350 basis points lower than they were when we came into government.

The member for Casey is particularly good at going back and talking about the past, the glory days and he looks through rose coloured glasses on the Howard era. It is one of his favourite topics—how wonderful things used to be in the past. It reflects the Liberal Party through and through. It is a party that always looks backwards, not a party that looks forward. It is not a party that is prepared to meet the challenges of the global financial crisis but one that harks back to the way things used to be in the good old days. The one thing I got out of his contribution was that he actually mentioned the word that the Liberal Party does not like to mention much these days and that is ‘jobs’. He actually let that out of the bag when he said jobs were something he remembers from the Keating era as being a problem.

These stimulus packages are about jobs. That is what they are fundamentally about. Without these stimulus packages we would be in a much worse position in terms of employment and we would have much longer job queues than we have at the moment. That is why the Liberal Party no longer talks about this issue—they know the stimulus package is cushioning small business in terms of being able to hold on to employees, making sure that they have a job and making sure that they can continue to work.

The member for Moncrieff’s contribution in terms of policy development was interesting. He let the cat right out of the bag. You do not look at the advice of the IMF, you do not look at the advice of Treasury, you do not worry about the RBA and what they have to say, and you do not look at what Rory Robinson, Craig James or other leading economists around this country or around the world say what needs to happen in terms of the global financial crisis—you base your policy on what someone may tell you on Facebook. What a revelation we had today. We have a Liberal Party who are having their policy designed by Facebook. It is no wonder they are such a rabble. That probably explains why they have so many different positions on the global financial crisis. You can just imagine them sitting there looking at the computer and saying, ‘Oh gosh, there is a comment there on my Facebook page that we should perhaps look at some particular aspect that I haven’t thought of before.’ It is just crazy for the opposition to be admitting that their economic position and their policy are being determined by Facebook.

Let us look at what the package actually did. I want to look at it through the eyes of a backbencher on the Central Coast, what it means for my community and what effects it has had. On the Central Coast, retail is the biggest employer. As we all know, when there is a downturn retail is an area where jobs are shed and the hours that people work are reduced. This economic stimulus package was aimed at jobs and at supporting retail, and that is exactly the effect it had. It had that effect in my electorate and it had that effect right across Australia. That is why we are one of the few countries where, since that first economic stimulus package was delivered, the retail sector has not done too badly. They have had some growth.

Compare that to what has happened in the United States and the United Kingdom. We stand out in relation to what has happened there. For the people of Dobell, the people of the Central Coast, that stimulus package meant they kept a job. It meant they had a job, because the largest sector of employment in our community is in relation to retail. On the Central Coast, the largest occupation group is tradespeople. Of course, the major part of our economic stimulus was in relation to infrastructure delivered by the building industry, to make sure we are creating employment as well as building much needed social infrastructure in terms of schools. In my electorate we have had over 673 projects, totalling $107 million.

Looking back, as the member for Casey always likes to do, to the days of the Howard government, not only were they spending like drunken sailors but they were not spending on infrastructure. They were neglecting areas that needed money. They were warned about this issue. They were told by the Reserve Bank on 20 occasions, ‘You need to spend on infrastructure.’ But what did they do? ‘No, we’re not worrying about that. We’ve got this mining boom. We don’t have to do anything. Let’s just keep the tax money coming in. We don’t care that we’re the highest taxing government in the history of the Commonwealth. We really don’t have to do anything. We’re asleep at the wheel.’ Whereas this government, faced with the global financial crisis, say, ‘We need to act and we need to act quickly and decisively.’

In fact, the IMF made the comment:

We welcome the quick implementation of targeted and temporary fiscal stimulus.

It noted that the Rudd government’s stimulus:

… provides a sizeable boost to domestic demand in 2009 and 2010 that will cushion the impact of the global recession.

Let’s forget about the IMF; let’s go back to Facebook, because there are going to be some great contributions on the member for Moncrieff’s Facebook site that will help him determine what sort of policy the Liberal Party actually has.

In terms of some of the infrastructure for schools, I want to talk very briefly about Tacoma Public School, which is a school that is getting a $2 million hall. This is a school with 130 students in an isolated community in my electorate. The hall does two things: it provides a community hall that will be used by that particular community—the whole community of Tacoma is very grateful for that as it provides the social part of the infrastructure—and, most importantly, it provides jobs. It provides local jobs for local people living in my electorate. The building company on that site, Stevens, are a local building company. They are employing 60 people and all of them live in my electorate. All of them live there and are getting jobs because of this stimulus package. That is what this stimulus package is all about: making sure that jobs would be provided so that we can cushion ourselves from the worst of the global financial crisis.

On that building site is an apprentice who was employed a little over a month ago. He was out of work. He was in his fourth year of carpentry, did not have a job and was not going to complete his trade. That was going to be bad for him, quite obviously, but also bad for the economy as we come out of the global financial crisis, when we will be faced with skill shortages—things that those on the other side did not care to address during the mining boom. This young fellow, Rob, has been employed on this site. He is one of three out-of-work apprentices who are now employed through the stimulus package. This is just one school out of 673 stimulus projects happening in my electorate, and it clearly highlights just how important it is for these projects to be in place—to make sure that jobs are created to stimulate the economy and that business can continue to operate.

I would also like to talk very briefly about the rebate available for small business. While it has been grudgingly supported by those opposite, they say it is not the first thing that they would do. I would like to talk about Ceri Aubrey, who is a contract window cleaner in my electorate. He was finding it very difficult to expand his business, create more jobs and move ahead with what he wanted to do with his business. As soon as this rebate was put in place, he bought not only a vehicle—a van—but also equipment for which he was able to claim a deduction. He has increased his workforce. He now has 20 people working for him. It is becoming a medium-sized business, grown from a small business, because of the support that he has got from this government.

This is a government that cares about small business. This is a government that cares so much about small business that we are prepared to act to make sure we put in place policies that are going to affect small business and make sure that there are jobs so that the economy is supported. You see that on this side of the House. On the other side of the House you see policy driven by Facebook. This is a government that is acting in the best interests of Australians and small business to make sure the economy is better affected in terms of their business—(Time expired)

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