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

No money on the table? I have just said to you that there is $150 million in the first round and leveraged three times that amount. If we can get the leveraging factor up, we will turn the billion dollars we are talking about in excess of $3 billion in the regions. Don't you think the regions want that? Don't you think they deserve it? Don't you think they are entitled to it? Well, why don't you support the mechanism by which we are going to do it. We will fight every inch of the way to the next election to demonstrate our commitment to the regions because they have not had that commitment before. The members that sit on this side of the House, who are just as committed and who work with us actively to ensure that these agendas are being developed, know the importance of it and they are out there fighting for their regions.

Let me go to the question of surpluses and interest rates. We have done all these things in last year's budget and this year's budget and produced surplus budgets over the course of the next four years in the forward estimates. Why do we need to produce a surplus? Because if the government is doing the right thing in terms of fiscal policy, what that does is give room to the Reserve Bank to move properly on monetary policy. We saw an example of it last week when they reduced interest rates by half a per cent. Don't you think that helps those businesses in the regions that you are talking about? Don't you think it helps families in terms of their cost of living pressures? So we are committed to delivering surpluses because we understand the interaction with the other instruments of economic policy of this country. We acknowledge the independence of the Reserve Bank, yes, but we know that the Reserve Bank looks to what we do on fiscal policy in making the decisions that it makes.

If anyone is in any doubt about the effectiveness of our economic strategy, have a look at the employment figures today. I did not hear anyone over there talking about the great demise in unemployment because we saw unemployment come down. We now have an unemployment rate in this country with a four in front of it. There is not a developed country in the world that has an unemployment rate with a four in front of it. Australia alone stands out there as a beacon of hope for what you can do with sound economic policy, and other countries look to us and ask how we did it. You come in here and try to trash everything that is done; globally we are recognised for the great economic management that has been undertaken.

But if you accept that the argument about getting the surplus right is important because it puts downward pressure on interest rates, then I will be very interested tonight, along with all of my colleagues, to hear what the Leader of the Opposition has to say about his surplus outcome. We already know that the commitments he has made will take the budget not to surplus but to a huge black hole. He has already committed to a $70 billion black hole—$70 billion! If what we have got to do is produce a surplus to get pressure downwards on interest rates, what do you think the $70 billion blowout in the budget is going to do? What do you think the Reserve Bank's reaction is going to be to that?

So let us have a look tonight as to how the Leader of the Opposition presents his budget. I have been in his position myself. I have actually delivered two budget speeches in reply and in both of them I have presented alternate budgets. I showed how you can cost and fund each one. That is what we need from him tonight. None of this empty rhetoric, forget the slogans: show us where the money is; show us how you are going to fund your black hole; and show us how you are going to produce a surplus when you have been opposing everything that we have done in this place as we move forward.

I heard the Leader of the National Party talk about us wiping out the surplus. I will tell you what is going to wipe out the surplus, and that would be the election of an Abbott government. That would completely wipe the surplus out of this country and we would have economic chaos in the country.

Let me also make this point, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, in terms of commitment to the regions. We have heard the great claim about their being the party that represents regional Australia. Let us look at the history. Each time the coalition wins office it tears away the regional development programs and structures and it takes Labor governments each time to restore them. It happened in 1975 when the Fraser government abolished the Commonwealth Department of Urban and Regional Development established by the Whitlam government, a government that my father was the Treasurer in. It happened again in 1996 when the Howard government's first decision was to abolish the Department of Housing and Regional Development, and I can remember the then Leader of the National Party, John Anderson, saying, 'There is no constitutional role for the Commonwealth in regional development.' I will tell you what: if the National Party does not stand for regional development, what the hell do you stand for? But there you were, giving it away and letting the Liberal Party trash the department that is supposed to deliver the very programs and mechanisms that you say you are interested in. Let us again understand what we are debating here. This is a party that comes in with empty rhetoric, claiming that we have not provided security for regional Australia. In all of the circumstances, for all the global recession, for all of the difficulties, for all of the downturn in Europe, for all of the difficulties with markets, we have stood proud as the only developed economy in the world to have avoided the global recession. We stand proud today as the only developed country in the world with an unemployment with a four in front of it. We stand proud on the basis that since we have come to office we have created now almost 800,000 new jobs.

We know that whilst there are going to be pressures on jobs because of things like the high dollar, our task is to help regions diversify their economic base and build on their strengths. They are the structures that we have put in place and the programs that we have put in place to support them. I know you support the programs, because you all come around to my drop-in sessions and ask how you can access the programs. So I know you have people sitting over there who want to get access to the programs. All I say to you is: vote for them; do not follow blindly the Leader of the Opposition, who wants you to oppose everything. Stand up for regional Australia—because we will.

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