Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

On the matter of public importance, I waited with my usual optimism to hear something constructive from the shadow Treasurer, but yet again nothing came out. If we are going to have a debate about the reasonable management of the economy, we need to set up the tests for that management. I would submit to the House that there is a number of reasonable tests: getting the big calls right; balancing the books; identifying existing problems in our economy and our society and fixing them; making sure that our economy grows fairly and inclusively; looking at the alternative management strategy, that is, of the opposition; and, most importantly, having innovative ideas and an optimistic vision for the future. These are the criteria. These, I submit, are the things Australians are interested in: getting the big calls right; balancing the books; identifying the major problems; seeing that the economy grows fairly and inclusively; examining if there are better alternative options; and making sure that we have an optimistic long-term view—not just for today or tomorrow, next week or next month or next year but for the next decade or the next two decades.

Returning to the submissions on the efficient and effective management of the economy, let us have a look at the big calls; let us look at the scoreboard for the government. On the global financial crisis: unlike most of the rest of the OECD, this nation managed to escape recession. Let us look at the big calls in the workplace: we reformed and abolished the unfair Work Choices laws of our predecessors which were leading us in a race to the bottom in wages and conditions. We abolished the minimum standards which would see our children and our grandchildren being paid inferior and unfair wages.

Let us look at another big call that we have got right: the information superhighway, the National Broadband Network, the innovation for the 21st century, which allows Australians to compete with the rest of the world. Let us look at another call we got right: flood reconstruction. No-one could have predicted these floods, but what options were available? Using the national economy, we set a levy and found the funds to help rebuild the terribly damaged infrastructure, mainly in Queensland but in other places too. We are also getting the big call right about finally acting on creating a sustainable economy by putting a price on carbon pollution. Indeed, have a look at the most immediate big call we had: dealing with the precipitous and over-the-top lockout at Qantas, stranding tens of thousands of passengers and travellers and grounding hundreds of aeroplanes. So there we go, we got the big calls right—the GFC, Work Choices, NBN, flood reconstruction, the carbon price and the most recent imbroglio and confusion created by Qantas shutting down its airline.

There is another submission which shows that we are managing the economy reasonably—that is, the need to balance the books. When you look at our net public sector debt in the Commonwealth to GDP, you see we are doing better than most of the rest of the world. It is going to peak at seven per cent; our interest payments are 0.4 per cent. Let us be very clear what the GFC did: the GFC absolutely slammed government revenue, but we have managed to engage in the fastest fiscal contraction since records began. That is $100 billion across four budgets. We have been winding back the Howard government's welfare creep. Indeed, when we came to power at the end of 2007, nearly 75 per cent of Australian families were receiving some family payment from the government. This was not sustainable and we have been winding that back. Look at the departmental efficiency dividend we have been applying to get our numbers back into the black—1.5 per cent. This I believe contrasts very favourably to the ill-thought-out opposition policies, which I will come to in a moment.

Having said that we get the big calls right and having said that we balance the books, we have also identified existing problems and we are in the process of fixing them. We do have a multispeed economy. You would have to live on another planet not to recognise that the mining boom, whilst it is good for some sections of the Australian economy, is causing dislocation in other parts of the economy. We have a very high dollar, which makes it hard for domestic tourism, domestic education services and local manufacturers to compete. So what are we doing? We have introduced the minerals resource rent tax so that we will share the prosperity that the richest companies in the world are enjoying from non-renewable resources—Australians' birthright—throughout the whole of the Australian Commonwealth; we are going to provide the 29 per cent corporate tax break; we are going to provide $1 billion in tax breaks for small business; we are going to build national infrastructure; and we are certainly going to lift compulsory superannuation from nine per cent to 12 per cent.

Never let it be forgotten that those opposite get 15 per cent super but would vote against 8½ million Australians getting 12 per cent. I look up the dictionary and that is coalition hypocrisy of the worst order. I note there are no interjections from them on that point because they know I am right. We also look at the unfair fees in superannuation—

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