Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How does it improve business confidence around Australia to have a New South Wales Labor government that is dumping infrastructure projects, sacking employees, increasing taxes and running the biggest budget deficit in 15 years? Does the Prime Minister agree with his own finance minister that the future of the New South Wales economy will ‘depend on what we do’? Does he agree that the Rudd government now owns the New South Wales economy?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This government has embarked upon a course of action which does not simply perpetuate the blame game of the past. This government believes that when it comes to the nation’s future challenges you work with state and territory governments, Labor and Liberal. We intend to work as closely with the state government of New South Wales as we will do with the state government of Western Australia. The state government of Western Australia has an interest when it comes to the future—it is in how we partner with them in infrastructure investments—and that is the interest of all responsible state governments.

The difference is this: state governments in the past, when they approached the previous Liberal government for assistance on infrastructure, were simply given the cold shoulder. The previous Liberal government was not interested. The previous Liberal government—and the member for Higgins will recall this very well—said that when it came to infrastructure that was exclusively a state responsibility.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, a point of order that goes to relevance: I asked the Prime Minister whether he will accept responsibility for anything.

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

The member for North Sydney will resume his seat. The Prime Minister has the call and he will respond to the question.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for North Sydney’s question was about the extent to which Commonwealth governments work or do not work with state governments. I have responded to that question by saying we have an approach on infrastructure. We have an approach when it comes to COAG. We have an approach when it comes to the future of health and education expenditure and we will seek to work cooperatively with the states for the future. What is at stake here is the nation’s economy and the national interest in which the states and territories also have a significant part.

The other part of responsibility, I would say to the member for North Sydney and to the member for Wentworth, is this: it lies also, at times of global financial crisis, in supporting our major economic and financial regulatory institutions. Once again the Liberal Party has been off the leash today, this time in relation to the Secretary of the Treasury. Comments by Mr Don Randall today—

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, a point of order on relevance which comes back to the question: will the Prime Minister accept responsibility for anything? He has got a war against everything but no responsibility.

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

The member for North Sydney will resume his seat. I will listen carefully to the Prime Minister.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for North Sydney’s question goes to the matter of economic responsibility, and economic responsibility in turn depends on whether you are going to support the independence of the economic institutions of this country, including the Reserve Bank and the Secretary of the Treasury, and including the independence and integrity of the regulators. Once again we have the member for Canning out there today hooking into the Secretary of the Treasury. It says here:

When asked about the Secretary of the Treasury the member for Canning says that he is an ‘activist’. It is unusual for a head of the Treasury to behave in this way. He is probably the first one to show those tendencies.

We then go on to the member for O’Connor who goes on to say:

What is going on down at the Treasury? John Howard in a conversation going back to the opposition days said to me, ‘If in doubt, take Treasury’s advice.’ That was because in the past they put policy before politics. They really need to take a close look at themselves. They used to be one department that was held in high regard even in opposition.

So today, on this day when the debate on the future of the economy is again central to our concerns in this parliament, we have the attack dogs of the Liberal Party out there attacking once again—

Wilson Tuckey (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Tuckey interjecting

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

Order! The member for O’Connor will not encourage the Prime Minister.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

the independence and the integrity of the Secretary of the Treasury. The member for Canning stood up in this place recently—I presume at his own initiative—to recant on his attack on the Governor of the Reserve Bank. Barely a week or two later—

Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I’m the attack dog!

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

Order! I remind the honourable member for Braddon that I might be the attack dog.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order on relevance. The Prime Minister cannot talk about ending the blame game and then use this kind of language in the parliament. He really should be brought—

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

Order! The member for Warringah will resume his seat. The question went to the matter of economic responsibility. The Prime Minister will respond to the question. As I said earlier to the member for O’Connor: no further encouragement.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Again, the member for North Sydney’s question goes to the matter of economic responsibility, which again hangs on the independence of our regulators and the integrity of those regulators. Our responsibility as the government is to defend the regulators. Those opposite seem to believe it is their mandate to attack the regulators or, as they have done today again, authorise an attack on the regulators. That is what has occurred not just through the member for Canning and not just through the member for O’Connor but also from the member for Goldstein.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order, again on relevance. This matter is no more authorised by the Leader of the Opposition than the Prime Minister authorised the leak to the Australian about George Bush.

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

Order! The member for Warringah will resume his seat. A point of order is not an opportunity to debate or interrupt.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Then we have the member for Goldstein, who is quoted in today’s Australian online as saying about Treasury’s role in the production of MYEFO documents:

It’s got the smell of manipulation about it.

So we have, therefore, not just the attack dogs from the backbench but the attack dog from the frontbench unleashing on the integrity and the independence of the Secretary of the Treasury. Does the member for Goldstein stand by that attack?

Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and COAG and Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader on Emissions Trading Design) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Robb interjecting

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He nods his head. He has accused the Secretary of the Treasury of manipulating MYEFO. This is an extraordinary statement. We had also a report in the Australian newspaper online about what appears to have been an active debate in the Liberal Party party room, because the member for Kooyong told the party room, it is said, to be ‘very, very careful about attacking Treasury or their institutional representatives’.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. It goes back to relevance—about whether the Prime Minister, the guy that wanted the job, will accept responsibility for anything happening in Australia.

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

Order! The member for North Sydney will resume his seat. The Prime Minister will bring his answer to a conclusion.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So, on the question of the integrity of the institutions, we have the Leader of the Opposition saying:

I’ve never criticised Dr Henry, and in fact, I spoke about him in such glowing terms yesterday in the house that even his mother would blush. So I have very high regard for Dr Henry.

Yet today we have an orchestrated attack by three members of the Liberal Party on the Secretary of the Treasury. Again, with the member—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! Has the Prime Minister concluded?

Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and COAG and Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader on Emissions Trading Design) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Robb interjecting

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

Order! The member for Goldstein has not got the call.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Albanese interjecting

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

The Leader of the House and the member for Goldstein will resume their seats. I think that it would be better if everybody could just calm down slightly and if the Prime Minister would now bring his answer to a conclusion.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question for the Leader of the Opposition is not what he says but what he does on the question of the independence of the regulators. The question from the member for North Sydney was about taking responsibility for the economy. I would say this to the member for North Sydney: as Prime Minister of Australia, I take responsibility for the good news and the bad news, and when the bad news comes I will take responsibility for that as well, because what the nation wants is not some political game plan whereby you flick responsibility to someone else all the time—where you flick responsibility to the states and territories. What the nation wants is national leadership in the national interest. What the nation wants is tough decisions in tough economic times. This government is prepared to take them.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Finance and Deregulation. Will the minister update the House on the benefits of recent interest rate cuts and how monetary policy and fiscal policy are working together to help Australia withstand the global financial crisis? Are these policies receiving broad support?

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Chisholm for her question. Australia is facing an enormous economic challenge emerging from the flow-on effects of the global financial crisis, and both the government and the Reserve Bank have taken strong and decisive action to strengthen growth and support households. Later on today I will be introducing the government’s legislation—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! The minister for finance will resume his seat. It would assist the proper conduct of the chamber if ministers were at least listened to and half the membership of the chamber did not speak over the ministers.

Judi Moylan (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, it would be nice if they said something worth listening to.

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

The member for Pearce is warned.

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Later on today I will be introducing the government’s legislation to deliver an Economic Security Strategy of substantial one-off payments to pensioners, families, carers and, of course, first home buyers. If the member for Pearce does not find that worth listening to, then I suspect she is in a small minority. These initiatives will strengthen jobs and economic growth and they will help the government to push back against the downward pressures on our economy emerging from the international financial crisis.

Over its past three meetings the Reserve Bank has cut interest rates by 200 basis points—a full two percentage points reduction in interest rates since September. That means, on average, about $400 per month in relief on interest rates for people with mortgages around $300,000. After years of coping with ever-increasing interest rates under the former government—the government that told Australians they would keep interest rates at record lows—this is welcome relief for homebuyers in Australia.

The government guarantee of deposits and wholesale borrowing by banks has also assisted. That has been acknowledged both in the Reserve Bank’s statement on monetary policy and by the Australian CEOs of both the ANZ Bank and the NAB. They have acknowledged that has helped to put downward pressure on market interest rates as well. I note also that the Chief Executive of the Business Council of Australia, Greg Gailey, wrote to the Prime Minister a few days ago on both of these matters—the Economic Security Strategy and the government’s approach to protecting our banking system—saying: ‘The BCA supported the government’s economic security initiative as timely, targeted and temporary. We support the amendments to the deposit and wholesale lending guarantees for the same reasons.’

Unfortunately, the support for the government’s strategies has not been completely universal. It has been very broad, but it has not been entirely universal. The opposition, on both occasions when these initiatives were announced, stated that it would offer them bipartisan support. But in practice the opposition has done nothing other than attack and undermine and snipe against the government’s initiatives. We saw a lot of statesmanlike posturing by the Leader of the Opposition at the time about how he would give all this bipartisan support and so forth but, unfortunately, we cannot trust what the Leader of the Opposition says—we have to watch what he does. He is a very clever politician but, unfortunately, the investment banker gene runs very strong: you spin the story, you do the deal, you take your cut and then you move on—that is the Leader of the Opposition. That is why, in a few short months in the job, he has been against cutting the fuel excise, in favour of cutting the fuel excise and then against cutting the fuel excise. He was against increasing pensions; now he is in favour of increasing pensions. He described the global financial crisis as the greatest economic crisis in our lifetimes and then he said that it was being overhyped. That is why we do not take the pious platitudes about bipartisanship all that seriously.

Last night the member for Curtin really let the mask slip, because she was on Good News WeekI am not quite sure why but she was on Good News Week: they clearly were a bit light on for talent that week—and she was asked to do a word association test. When the word ‘bipartisanship’ was put to her, her response on the spot was ‘Overrated.’ I can understand why the Deputy Leader of the Opposition would have some problem with copying something the government is doing and not giving credit for it. Given her recent experiences, I can understand why she would have some problem with that, but now today we have seen the consequences from the signal that was given on behalf of the Leader of the Opposition by the deputy leader last night. We have seen it in a coordinated, concerted attack on the Secretary of the Treasury—not a one-off, isolated instance but a coordinated, orchestrated attack on the Secretary of the Treasury by no less than three members of the Liberal Party, one of whom is a senior frontbencher—alleging manipulation of the Treasury forecasts in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, alleging that the Secretary of the Treasury is an activist and alleging that the Treasury has lost all of its credibility and that it should take a close look at itself. That last one, of course, was from the member for O’Connor.

There is one honourable, decent person on the opposition benches, and that is the member for Kooyong, who is widely respected in the community on both sides of parliament. You can see why: he understands what is going on here—he realises how appalling this is. I call on the Leader of the Opposition to immediately repudiate these attacks by his three members on the Secretary of the Treasury and to stick to his statements of 22 October when he indicated the Secretary of the Treasury was held in his highest regard.