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

And we can all hope that we are Griffinesque. That is all I can say. I would like to congratulate the member for Fraser on his motion. It is a good motion. It looks at the economic situation, and there is much to be positive about—800,000 jobs since 2007 and an unemployment rate of 5.1 per cent, lower than all but one of the major advanced economies. We are beating the rest of the world, whether you look at the United States, the United Kingdom or Europe generally. We have a very good news story to tell on jobs. We have a very good news story to tell on inflation, which is low. We have a very good news story to tell on wages growth, which is faster than CPI. We know that the best way to deal with the cost of living is to have growing wages and, if you have not got a job, to get a job and, if you got a job, to get a better job. That is always the best way of dealing with the cost of living. We have got low interest rates, which of course are a major contributor to family and household budgets. We have got low debt—not high debt but low debt—and we have got an investment pipeline, which, according to the Treasurer tonight, increased by 12.3 per cent in the March quarter, to reach a record of $1.086 billion, the first time more than $1 billion has been spent on mineral exploration in a single quarter. That exploration has risen by 35 per cent since the price of carbon was announced, and 80 per cent since the minerals resource rent tax. So we have a stunning investment pipeline, which will basically underwrite future economic growth. We have doubled investment in schools. We have an extra 116,000 university places, which we know are a major contributor to future economic growth. We have a record number of people in training and apprenticeships. We have some 460,000 Australians currently in trade apprenticeships or vocational training nationwide.

So we have got a very good news story, particularly when you look at the rest of the world. The US recovery is slow due to the housing overhang and the results of the household debt and banking debts that were incurred during their crisis. Europe is having a political crisis which has economic implications, which is all basically around the security of debt and who is going to be responsible about it. We see them pursuing damaging and counterproductive short-term austerity programs, very similar to what the coalition would advocate for Australia. We know that in Europe the only solution is a guarantee of all European debt, followed by short-term growth policies and finally a program of long-term austerity, not short-term austerity. That is what will fix Europe.

We know what is going to come up next. The member for Mayo is going to stand up here and pour scorn on Australia's economic record. We know that the opposition like going overseas and talking about how good Australia's economy is and then, when they get in front of a hometown audience, they will have you believing that black is white and up is down. They will be talking the place down, trying to damage consumer confidence and pretending that Australia's economy is like the rest of the world's. This is very damaging speculation. We know that the member for Mayo has speculated about mining investment in my state, South Australia. He will do so again—talking the state down, talking mining down in the state.

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