Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. What is the government doing to prevent the unemployed being recycled from welfare to work to welfare and what measures is the government taking to deal with the skills shortage?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. What this government is doing is modernising our economy. What this government is going to do is invest in the drivers of productivity—because, the higher our productivity, the faster our economy can grow and the lower will be the inflation we receive. But that is not understood by those opposite, because they never invested in the drivers of productivity. What we have seen in recent times is that average—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Treasurer will resume his seat. Again, I am a little reluctant to make this utterance because it will be interpreted by some as not meaning what I want it to mean. For half an hour, people on my left have been seeking to put a question to the Treasurer. There is now a question to the Treasurer, and I invite the members on my left to sit in silence and listen to the response.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the last five years, average annual productivity growth has been lower than at any other time in the last 16 years. We learnt from the national accounts last week that in the last year it was zero. Of course, strong productivity growth is the key to wealth creation and to job creation. Precisely at the time that productivity growth was declining, inflation was going up. So improving productivity is the key to job creation in this economy. Also, because of that, we have put in place our investment in skills, our investment in deepening the skill base of the workforce—450,000 new training places—and, of course, when it comes to infrastructure, political leadership. We know the previous government had no concern for investment in this area, and the result was the highest underlying inflation rate in 16 years.

An extraordinary thing happened today: the member for Wentworth went out and said that he was going to mount a vigorous argument. Do you know what the vigorous argument was? It was against having a plan to fight inflation. Can you believe that? More disturbing still, the member for Wentworth said that there was no such thing as a skills crisis in Australia. What planet is the member for Wentworth from? You cannot go out and talk to a business in this country without finding them talking about skills shortages, and that is the problem.

The member for Wentworth will say anything and do anything, but he does not have a plan to fight inflation. He has a plan to take the Leader of the Opposition’s job but no plan to fight inflation, and that is risky for this country. We need a government to put policies in place which will fight inflation and create jobs for all Australians.

Chris Pearce (Aston, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Could I ask that the Treasurer table the document from which he was reading?

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Was the Treasurer reading from a document?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is confidential, Mr Speaker.