Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this matter of public importance. There has been a global financial crisis and six million jobs have been demolished worldwide. The first test of any government is to withstand economic recession, withstand the gale force winds coming internationally, and provide jobs and economic growth for this country. This Prime Minister is delivering on jobs. The importance of this is that we know a job is the best insurance for a person's prosperity and the best chance to meet the cost of living. It is the best chance for them to withstand the rigours of the modern world.

This government protected over 200,000 jobs during a time when the rest of the world was going backwards and suffering unemployment. If we look at our nearest neighbour, New Zealand, 6.8 per cent unemployment—and that was Tony Abbott's model. The United Kingdom has 7.8 per cent. The US and Europe have unemployment rates in excess of nine per cent and Canada, which has a resource-rich economy just like our own, has an unemployment rate of 7.8 per cent.

Australia, unique around the world, has created jobs. This government has created over 740,000 jobs since coming to office and just in the last two months we have seen 7,800 new jobs created. What is projected by Treasury is a further 500,000 jobs. That means that our unemployment rate, unique in the world at 4.9 per cent, will drop in mid-2013 to 4.5 per cent.

That is the key indicator of whether or not a prime minister delivers to the country. Jobs are the key indicator. For my constituents, it is literally the difference between getting by or really suffering poverty. It is the difference between being able to buy a house or being able to afford the rent or being able to feed the family. It is a critical indicator. It is the only indicator in the end that really matters. But this Prime Minister is doing so much more because, if you saw the recent budget, the member for Lalor is setting up a jobs and skills escalator for people in my electorate and electorates all over this country. We know that jobs are the key to creating wealth and helping families meet the cost of living, but skills are the guarantee of job security, higher pay and higher national productivity. It is skills that make all the difference to people. It is skills that insulate people from economic recession and job insecurity. It is skills through apprenticeships that give young people a future and it is skills which build the economy.

When we came to power in 2007 the biggest problem employers would tell me about is that they could not find skilled employees. They could not find job ready employees. It was a tragedy because there were long-term unemployed people in my electorate who had been ignored through a decade of the previous government. This government is going to spend $3 billion on skills over six years—apprenticeships, industry assistance, industry led involvement and degrees. We are not degree snobs. The old government used to talk about job snobs. We are not degree snobs. We think people getting degrees is a good idea. We think people who have worked in trades who later go to university is a good thing. We think learning is for life and we think skills are important. They are important to individuals, they are important to families and they are important to this economy.

We have Australia working and we see that the parliament is also working. There have been 135 pieces of legislation, none defeated and not a single amendment carried without government support. Australians are working, the parliament is working and the Prime Minister is working. That is the important thing.

One of the most contentious issues of this era, unauthorised maritime arrivals, is a problem which bedevils the world. You have only to look at Europe and America—which does not have unauthorised maritime arrivals but obviously they have border issues— to see that. It is a most difficult issue for nation-states to deal with. We have a Prime Minister who has approached it with security and integrity in mind. That is what we have—a package of domestic laws to combat people smugglers, progress through the Bali arrangements and cooperation with our neighbouring countries, like Indonesia. Finally, Indonesia has domestic laws which combat people smuggling. We have an agreement with Malaysia and the UNHCR. That basically means that we have security and integrity, and that means that we will get long-term results and not the sort of results where people go off to Nauru for an extended stay before they come to Australia. We are not going to have those sorts of temporary and expensive arrangements.

Climate change is an existential threat to the world. It is a big problem, despite what Lord Monckton and others say. It is the biggest international issue of our time. We—the government and the Prime Minister—are working to build a domestic political consensus with this parliament, which was elected by the Australian people, where no party has a majority. The expectation of the Australian people was that we would work together. The Prime Minister held out the hand of bipartisanship and offered a place on the climate change committee to the opposition and they refused to take it. It is a worldwide problem and five of our top trading partners—Japan, China, the US, Korea and India—have implemented or are piloting carbon trading or other schemes to combat climate change. Europe has had a trading scheme since 2005. The Prime Minister is providing leadership and the opposition are sitting out, carping and saying no.

It is like this on so many other issues—the NBN, schools, superannuation. On all of those issues the government is making progress and the opposition is just opposing and saying, 'No, no, no, no.' They are refusing to acknowledge that there are any positives in more superannuation. They are refusing to acknowledge that there are any positives in having computers in schools. It seems incredible that you would oppose putting computers in schools, but they do.

The most important thing the Prime Minister has done is abolish Work Choices. She has protected job security in this country and she has protected people's conditions of employment, such as their penalty rates. The next most important thing to having a job is having a well-paid job and having some dignity when you work and not being pushed around and having your penalty rates changed. The Prime Minister has safeguarded Australian values and ensured that Australian companies take a high-wage, high-skill path rather than a race to the bottom where we compete with low-wage countries.

It is worth looking at the alternative. We know that they will return to Work Choices. The members for Kooyong, Mayo, Moncrieff and Higgins—the young guns of the party—want to knock Mr Robb, the member for Goldstein, who is here, off the front bench. Let us be honest about it. These young guns are champing at the bit, all advocating for industrial relations reform. That is what they want. They want a position on the front bench. We know this from Barry O'Farrell. He said nothing about industrial relations before the election. As soon as he was elected, the first thing he did was get stuck into workers.

We know the alternative on climate is direct subsidy, this orgy of taxpayers' money—$20 billion in the short term and $18 billion a year in the future. That is what it will cost this country to subsidise polluters if the full range of carbon cuts come in. That is what it would end up costing this country. Then we look at who this opposition leader listens to. We know he was granted a meeting last year with Lord Monckton. We wonder what kind of government he would lead. Maybe there would be a big phone on the Prime Minister's desk with a big 'M' on it. Every time I see Lord Monckton he reminds me of that character out of Austin Powers, Dr Evil. We could have the member for Warringah as the character Number 2. The member for Flinders could be Mini-Me. Perhaps the member for Longman could be Scott Evil. I will not even talk about who might play Frau Farbissina. The member for Dawson might be wearing a kilt and speaking with a Scottish accent.

The thing about it is that it is a farce. The opposition leader seeks to turn this country into a farce. He seeks to use this parliament as an incense burner to his own vanity. He seeks to make the whole thing a big joke. That is what he does when he meets and shares a platform with Lord Monckton, who is an extremist and beyond the pale. Even today, when he compared good Australians to Nazis, what did the opposition leader say? He said, 'Oh, he went a bit over the top.' The problem with this Leader of the Opposition is that he will share a platform with anybody and do anything to seek power in this country. He is prepared to dance with the very devil himself to do it.

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