House debates

Tuesday, 15 June 2010

Questions without Notice

Budget

2:39 pm

Photo of Wayne SwanWayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

You can hear and see the contempt that those opposite have for people on modest incomes who are represented by organisations that have had their say in the last 24 hours. You can understand why they stand for the implementation of Work Choices in full, because they do not understand the importance of these measures to the living standards of people in this country who are on low and modest incomes. They most particularly do not understand the importance of the support for superannuation, particularly for people on modest incomes.

These are very vital economic reforms which will lift the living standards of millions of workers in this country, and those opposite have nothing but contempt for those people and the organisations that represent them. It is good to hear from ACOSS. It is good to hear from the ACTU. It is good to hear from the Conservation Foundation. It is good to hear from the Consumers Federation. I know those opposite do not want to hear it, but let us go through what they have had to say. The Consumers Federation said:

The RSPT is good policy—a tax on resources should be part of a sound tax base—and it comes with … off-sets in other parts of the tax-base, so it has the added virtue of rebalancing a base out of kilter.

Unlike many other products, the resources aren’t mobile—they are in the ground. Australian ground. All Australians should benefit from this luck of geography, not just a well-heeled few.

Nothing could summarise the situation better than that.

We do have to face up to the need for fundamental economic reform to lift our national savings to support Australian workers on low incomes. We also have to face up to the need to invest in infrastructure, particularly in mining areas. Of course, some in the National Party, but apparently not in this parliament, understand the need to do that. We understand the need to invest in capacity in the mining regions. Those opposite do not. We also understand the needs of 3.5 million Australians who will benefit from what we are doing immediately in superannuation, the 8.4 million workers who will benefit from the 12 per cent guarantee or the 2.4 million small businesses which will benefit from the tax write-off of up to $5,000.

This is what economic reform is all about, and that is what is not understood by those opposite. We saw the shadow Treasurer say last week that the stimulus had nothing to do with keeping Australia out of recession. They simply do not understand it. They get all the big economic calls wrong and they have got this economic call wrong. We on this side of the House understand the importance of economic reform to lift living standards and to put in place a modern tax system.

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