Jim Turnour (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are in the midst of the worst global recession in 75 years following on from the global financial crisis last year. Despite that, Australia has been weathering the storm better than other economies. While the US, Japan and European Union countries have been going into recession, Australia has been weathering that storm better than others. We need to recognise that the early and decisive action taken by the Rudd government in response to the global financial crisis has been important in helping the Australian economy to make passage through the difficult waters that we have entered into as a result of the global recession.

Figures out today put unemployment at 5.8 per cent. That is no change from the previous months, and that is positive news. There was an expectation that figure was going to increase. Earlier in the week we saw ANZ job ads up for the first time since April 2008—again, positive news. As the Prime Minister has said, we are not out of the woods yet. The Rudd government acted early and decisively, introducing bank guarantees and providing early stimulus. Again, earlier in the year, when we saw our major trading partners going further into growth-decline and into recession, we acted through our Nation Building and Jobs Plan, investing $42 billion in a very important nation-building stimulus program.

A critical part of that has been Building the Education Revolution. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer have done a great job in the overall management of the economy, but we also need to recognise the good work that the Deputy Prime Minister has done, particularly in the education reforms and investments that she developed as part of our Nation Building and Jobs Plan. All this week we have seen a scurrilous attack on what is an education revolution investment through our stimulus measures. It has been a scurrilous attack by the opposition, whose response to the global financial crisis and the global recession was to sit on their hands and do nothing.

While the Rudd government changed course, recognising that to steer this country through these difficult waters we needed to guarantee the banks and stimulate the economy, the opposition, with very poor judgment at every step of the way, opposed the actions of the government. Whether the bank guarantee or the stimulus measures, they have been opposing everything this government has sought to do. This week they have sought to run a scare campaign and a smear campaign on one of the central elements of our Nation Building and Jobs Plan: our investments in schools and education facilities in this country.

Through our Nation Building and Jobs Plan we are supporting jobs in the Australian economy. Today unemployment stayed the same: 5.8 per cent. Treasury estimates that our stimulus measures will support up to 210,000 jobs. There are people in this country, sadly, who have lost their jobs as a result of the global financial crisis and the global recession that has come out of it. Through no fault of their own, families in this country have been impacted. The government decided to step in and take action to support the Australian economy, as well as to support the jobs of working families and of mums and dads out there in the construction industry and in the tourism industry in my electorate and in electorates all across this country. The opposition have been opposing that support for jobs all the way. This week they have been particularly scurrilous in their attacks on the Deputy Prime Minister and our efforts to support school infrastructure investment in this country.

I am very proud of the investments in my electorate. More than $150 million has now been invested in educational infrastructure in Leichhardt. To build and improve our local TAFE college, more than $10 million was invested. We have also invested in our primary and high schools. Through this program we are delivering for Australian schools beyond any expectations of two years ago. Schools have welcomed what we are doing. I have received very good feedback from school principals, teachers, P&Cs and P&Fs. We are providing jobs in our local community. Local builders are doing the work at Hambledon State School. Local builders in my electorate are benefiting regularly from the work that we are doing in stimulating and supporting our economy. (Time expired)