Rowan Holzberger (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That's right. That is what they are calling a spree. But in one year—and I will say it is in one year—we have built more houses in Forde than the opposition built in almost 10 years of government across the whole country. I say one year because they spent two or three years trying to hold it up because they saw it as a spree.

Finally, in skills and training, we have free TAFE, which the opposition said people would not value because it is free. When I was working on farms I learned that with the right skills you can fix everything. As I am sure the member for Riverina knows, with a bit of silicon and fencing wire, you can fix just about anything. And it turns out that with the right skills you can even fix the broken skill system that we were left with after the opposition gave it to us.

The thing that Australia has which is our most valuable resource is not underground but on top of the ground. It is the people of this country. With the right skills you can skill up and you can get a return on that investment and that is what all of these things are—they are a return on an investment. They are carefully calculated, methodically thought through returns on the investment that we will see for generations to come.

Do you know what really costs? Doing nothing. That is the bill that you do not get until after the election. Because when governments do not invest it is Australians who are left to pick up the tab. There are just some things that it is better to do collectively, for the government to invest in. Health care is one of them; otherwise, you end up with a health system like the American system, where it is every person for themselves. Public housing is another one of them. Skills and training is another one of them. While the Australian people are sick to death of privatisation and economic rationalism, for some reason the opposition wants to continue with that failed policy. There is a role for government investing in the economy, just as there is a role in the good management of a company investing in its plan and its people. The opposition say if you do not pay for it, you do not value it. But if you cannot afford it, you are locked out, and the country suffers.

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