Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have called the member for Tangney; the member for Grayndler will resume his seat.

Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Would the Prime Minister outline to the House how Australian workers have fared over the last 10 years? How does this compare with the previous 13 years? Is the Prime Minister aware of any threats facing Australian workers?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If I can be a little more forensic, let me remind the House that over the last 10 years real wages in Australia have risen by 16.8 per cent. This compares to the 1.3 per cent growth in the 13 years of the previous Labor government. Using the national accounts statistics, a calculation can be made that the average Australian worker is $127 a week better off as a result of the 10 years of this government. They are $127 a week better off after 10½ years of this government than they would have been compared with the economic performance of the former government because, if the real wage pattern of the previous 13 years had continued over the last 10 years, the average Australian worker would have been $127 a week worse off than they have been. That means that the Australian worker is $6,655 a year better off than they would have been under a Labor government. This is not an illusion; this is real money. This is the real dividend and fruits of this government’s economic management. I am asked about threats posed to this prosperity. It gives a great deal of relevance to the warnings of the Business Council yesterday and it was all summed up extremely well in the Melbourne Herald Sun today by that eminent and respected economic commentator Terry McCrann when he had this to say:

The resources industry is the goose that lays Australia’s golden egg. Kim Beazley is prepared to slaughter it—mindlessly, cynically—

Laurie Ferguson (Reid, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Laurie Ferguson interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Reid is warned.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He said:

... and almost casually irresponsibly. Let there be absolutely no mistake. If Labor won the next election and if it delivered on its promise to abolish Australian Workplace Agreements, it would seriously hurt every single current and future Australian ... AWAs are the fundamental basis of that flexibility and productivity. Abolish them and you rip away the foundation of the resources industry’s success.

The member for Tangney asked me about threats. Terry McCrann has nailed the nature, the extent and the dimension of the threat posed by a Beazley Labor government.