Martin Ferguson (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Resources and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

We as a nation have always been rich in natural assets. The real issue is our capacity to develop those natural assets by putting the necessary reforms in place. In that context I remind the House that demand for Australia’s LNG is set to grow. One of the reasons is the tough debate this government took on 25 years ago about the introduction of a petroleum resource rent tax, which saw the biggest ever investment in Australia’s history—the Gorgon project of $43 billion—last year. Similarly, demand for our minerals continues to grow because of the growth in China—and we all have regard for the Indian market that is yet to come on. One of the reasons we are well placed is the key reforms that Labor in government took on in the eighties and the nineties. It was those reforms that well positioned Australia for the challenge that confronts us in the 21st century.

Labor has always been up to standing up for reform in Australia. We have lost market share in the last decade because of the failure of the Howard government year in and year out to invest in infrastructure and to invest in the skilling of Australia. Just think about the reforms that set up Australia under the Hawke and Keating governments, reforms quite often opposed by the coalition because they are never interested in Australia’s national interests—they continually talk Australia down domestically and internationally. Let us go to some of those reforms: the floating of the dollar; embracing free trade and open markets globally; our engagement with Asia, which has given us the market opportunities in China and India; the issue of introducing productivity bargaining—something I know a little bit about—and the capacity to negotiate—

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