Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Why is it important to get the big decisions right when it comes to building a stronger economy for the future and what will be the consequences of getting those decisions wrong?

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

I thank the member for Hindmarsh for his very important question, because today we have had a timely reminder of why it is important to get the big, long-term decisions right for the future of the country. Today we have had the Better Life Index published by the OECD, which shows that Australia is the best country in which to live and work in the global economy. I know everybody on this side of the House is proud of that result, and we know if we want to keep it that way we have to keep getting the big economic decisions right, just as we did during the global financial crisis and just as we have done in our recent budget. Always supporting jobs and growth, because when you are always supporting jobs and growth you are strengthening the underlying resilience of your economy. They are the conditions in which you can put in place the very big reforms for the future, to keep reforming your economy for tomorrow.

That is what we have done in the recent budget because budgets are really about choices, and in the recent budget we made two very significant choices: to put in place the long-term savings to fund a major reform of our education system, to improve our schools, which will benefit our country for decades to come; and we put in place savings to fund disability care, to make our country fairer. These decisions have to be taken and they have to be taken from a position of budgetary strength. This government put in place the savings that are required to do that, and today we have had a demonstration from those opposite of how ill-equipped they are to do that.

We have heard a lot from them about how they are supposedly supporting savings in the budget; we have heard a lot from the shadow Treasurer about what he is going to do. But today in the party room he was again rolled by the member for Menzies. He was again rolled by the member for Menzies when it came to our initiative to pay an additional sum to young mums on the birth of their babies. Rolled by the member for Menzies, as he was back in March. Rolled by the member for Menzies, and rolled again on another very important piece of legislation delivering long-term savings to fund disability care, rolled on lifetime cover in the private health insurance area—so in both those areas.

What we have seen is a lack of discipline and what we have seen is a lack of transparency, because they do not want to tell the Australian people what they will do to fund their promises. They want to hide it all the way through to the election and do a Campbell Newman. If they are elected, they will have a commission of cuts and that will be when the Australian people will find out about their cuts to the bone.