Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

That was a struggle if ever I have heard one, from the bumbling Leader of the National Party, who claims credit and representation in terms of regional Australia. They have not asked a question on the subject in this parliament, and when they were in government they said there was no constitutional role for the Commonwealth when it comes to regional development. If the National Party do not stand for regional development, what do they stand for? They are a disgrace, and yet we have got this MPI led by the faltering leader who now looks after that once proud party. But it is a rump, because it is a branch office of the Liberal Party. Let me just deal with the issue we are debating here today. We are not just debating the question of the price of carbon and the impact that is having on the Australian economy. What we should be debating is that we are an economy in transition and we are being confronted by many challenges. Putting a price on carbon is one of the solutions to facing up to those challenges, but there are many challenges, including the high Australian dollar, the fluctuating commodity prices and the devastation wrought by the floods. This is what economies have to face up to. That is what leadership is about, and you can either treat those challenges as opportunities or treat them as threats. We on this side of the House see the opportunities; on that side of the House they only see them as threats. They go around preaching gloom and doom; they go around with a fear campaign. They have never come forward with a constructive thought in their life.

This is not the first time we have had to face up to challenges. The last time we did, it was also a Labor government that rose to the charge—a Labor government that understood in the eighties that what was needed for this economy to come through was to embrace an economy that needed to restructure itself, an economy that needed to open itself up to the rest of the world and an economy that recognised that it is such a small market that you simply cannot produce for your own market. We had to engage the world, and to do that we had to become competitive. That is why we floated the dollar, that is why we cut tariffs, that is why we opened up to foreign bank entry and that is why we undertook the hard decisions. And what did that achieve, because we were prepared to face up to the hard decisions? It achieved the circumstances—

Mr Frydenberg interjecting—

Mr Laming interjecting—

Mr Speaker, if you are prepared to bring them to order—

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