House debates

Tuesday, 26 October 2010

Questions without Notice

Economy

2:01 pm

Photo of Tony AbbottTony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to her pre-election commitments to fix the mining tax, to rule out a carbon tax and to stop the people smugglers, and I remind her that since the election the mining tax deal has unravelled, she has ruled in a carbon tax and there have been 24 boats with 1,209 people on them. When will the Prime Minister stop complaining and start governing by introducing policies that will fix this mess?

Photo of Julia GillardJulia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. Let us go through it piece by piece. The minerals resource rent tax is being consulted through the Policy Transition Group and the legislation will be brought before the parliament. Then, of course, the opposition will face a fundamental choice—whether they will continue to maintain their opposition to a tax that Australia’s biggest miners have agreed to pay and stand in the way of a reduction in company tax to achieve balanced economic growth, stand in the way of tax breaks for small business, stand in the way of better superannuation for Australians and an increase in national savings and stand in the way of $6 billion of productivity-improving infrastructure. That will be a choice for the Leader of the Opposition.

On the question of tackling climate change, I do not believe in the Leader of the Opposition’s simple slogans. I believe in using the opportunities of this new parliament through the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee to address the question of pricing carbon. I reiterate to the Leader of the Opposition: if he ever wakes up to the fact that the reform road is not a demolition derby then he will be welcome, if he wants to, to join with the government in real efforts to tackle climate change and pricing carbon, to join the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee and to do something constructive rather than to seek to wreck.

On the third point that the Leader of the Opposition raises, what I said to the Australian people before the election, when I spoke to the Lowy Institute, was that this was a complex problem. Unlike the Leader of the Opposition, I was not going to use simple three-word slogans. Unlike the Leader of the Opposition, I was going to be truthful about the dimensions of the problem. I would not degenerate to using terminology like ‘armada of boats’ or ‘peaceful invasion’. I would explain factually to the Australian people the dimensions of the problem and the regional protection framework and regional processing centre that I believe is important to the solution. In government, we have worked on that methodically, with the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship in the region just before the parliament sat pursuing dialogue on these questions.

At some point the Leader of the Opposition needs to think through whether really his political cause is advanced by being someone who is known for wrecking or whether his political cause is advanced by returning to the Liberal Party of old, which was a reform-advocating political institution. I say to the Leader of the Opposition, as I said last night, that for us to seize the benefits of prosperity, coming out as we have as strong from the global financial crisis, we need to keep walking the reform road. Now is not the time to lead the Liberal Party away from the post-1983 consensus on economic reform. Now is not the time to lead the Liberal Party into economic Hansonism. Now is not the time to conclude that the way forward for the Liberal Party is to conduct itself as a demolition derby on the reform road.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting

Photo of Harry JenkinsHarry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Members are only eating into the time of their own question time.

2:06 pm

Photo of Andrew LeighAndrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, why is ongoing economic reform important, and what is the government doing to boost national productivity?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting

Photo of Andrew RobbAndrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | | Hansard source

Mr Robb interjecting

Photo of Harry JenkinsHarry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The member for Goldstein is warned.

Photo of Julia GillardJulia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question and also congratulate him on his new book, which I will be participating in the launch of later today. Congratulations do go to him. He is a member who understands the need for economic reform, as do all government members. This is a key divide in this contemporary parliament, where the government remains committed to continuing economic reform in order to seize the opportunities our nation now has, emerging as strongly as it is from the global financial crisis.

The foundation stone of economic reform is fiscal consolidation and that means that we will bring the budget back to surplus in 2012-13, but economic reform requires us to do more. It requires us to lift the speed limits on the economy, to make sure that we are investing in the drivers of productivity and participation. That is why the government is committed to a reform program which includes cutting company tax. We want to see balanced economic growth. We want to see Australian companies strong. Our reforms include special benefits for small business, because we understand that in the modern economy small business people are drivers of economic growth.

Our reform program also lifts the speed limits of the economy by investing in infrastructure—that is, traditional infrastructure like roads, like rail, like ports, but in the 21st century it is also the infrastructure of our age: the National Broadband Network. That is why we are committed to delivering the National Broadband Network—so that our nation does not end up exporting jobs to places like Korea and Singapore because they have better economic infrastructure than us.

Reform and lifting the speed limits of the economy also requires investments in skills, in human capital, and the government remains committed to its transformational agenda in human capital, ranging from the education of our smallest children through school education, vocational education and training and into universities. We also remain committed to delivering a seamless national economy. Australian business should not be tied up in red tape because of the existence of differential regulation in different parts of the country. This remains a key reform driver for this government, including in the area of occupational health and safety.

We intend to take the market based tools of reform into the areas of education and health to drive further reform. It was a great pleasure yesterday, with the Minister for Health and Ageing and the Treasurer, to talk publicly in this place about our health reform agenda, one that now appears to be opposed by the Liberal Party. We will also bring a reform drive to the question of pricing carbon and dealing with water. Our nation deserves leadership on these questions. We cannot afford to see the Liberal Party in this place turn its back on reform. We will continue to drive reform, but we do say to the Liberal Party: now is the time to stay determined on a reform course; do not submit to economic Hansonism; do not submit to the Leader of the Opposition’s leadership approach of looking for things to wreck rather than things to build.