Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Parry has asked what happened in the intervening years. You had a government that was committed to this country’s future and that was serious about unwinding some of the disasters of the previous government and getting in there and doing exactly what the Australian community wanted—and that is the outcome of that.

Thirdly—and, as you know, Mr Acting Deputy President, I do not normally read speeches, but there are some facts here that I need to have properly on the record—between 1996 and 2006 Australia’s economic growth increased on average by 3.6 per cent per year compared to 3.2 per cent for the USA, 2.8 per cent for the UK, 2.2 per cent for Europe and 1.2 per cent for Japan. That was a quite extraordinary effort from a nation of some 21 million people. I will go through those figures again. Between 1996 and 2006, Australia’s growth increased on average by 3.6 per cent. The growth of those powerhouses—the US, the UK, Europe and Japan—was 3.2 per cent, 2.8 per cent, 2.2 per cent and 1.2 percent respectively.

Fourthly, over 10.5 million Australians are currently in work. That is 2.2 million more than were in work in March 1996. I think that a fantastic figure, a sensational figure and a figure that we do not hear from those on the other side is that a massive 60 per cent of those jobs—some 1.32 million—were full-time jobs. That is an extraordinary legacy left by the previous government, which is again not acknowledged by those opposite. It is a churlish attitude to a marvellous record. The unemployment rate in 1996 was 8.2 per cent. In August 2007, the rate had fallen to 4.3 percent—as Senator Parry knows.

Fifthly, between March 1983 and March 1996, real wages of working families decreased by 1.8 per cent. Under the former government, real wages increased by 21.5 per cent. If you want to deliver for working families in this country, then the way you deliver is you give them real wage increases, you provide opportunities for education, you keep inflation under control and you keep interest rates down—which brings me to my next point. Over the 12 years of the coalition government, home mortgage rates averaged 7.25 per cent. Between 1983 and 1996 under the former Labor government, it was a whopping 12.75 per cent, with a high of 17 per cent. I remember getting my first mortgage in 1983—obviously I was a very young man then—and I was paying 18.25 per cent. And after five years we had a mortgage debt which we had not paid a red cent off. What a legacy 18.25 per cent was for Australia’s working families!

Finally, I want to return to inflation. Inflation averaged 2.5 per cent from March 1986. What was it under Labor when they left office in 1996? It was 5.2 per cent, with a peak of 11.1 per cent. So it averaged 2.5 per cent from March 1996 until 2007. Under Labor, the average was 5.2 per cent with a peak of 11.1 per cent. That is not a genie; that is an inflation monster. We are not prepared to be lectured by the Australian Labor Party in relation to our record. I would have thought they would actually give us some support and praise for the economy that the new Rudd government inherited.

I would like to make a couple of other final points because I am acutely aware of the time frame. I want to talk about a couple of budget measures. The first of those is the Tax Laws Amendment (Medicare Levy and Medicare Levy Surcharge) Bill 2008, which was introduced in the other place and debated within about 24 hours. I have seen some stupid policy decisions and I acknowledge that all governments, of all persuasions, make some very silly policy decisions. But I tell you: this is the one that is going to come back and haunt this government. More importantly, it will come back and haunt the very people who you pretend to be supporting: Australia’s working families.

Australia’s working families know who is going to support them better and they know, from the record I have just given, that that is the coalition and not the Australian Labor Party. Why you would, for revenue means and revenue means only, risk taking between half a million and one million Australians out of private health insurance and loading up the public system absolutely beggars belief. I have not yet heard any reasonable explanation for this. What we do know, from my memory of what happened in the estimates process, was that no-one bothered to ask Health about this. This was all done out of Treasury. This was a revenue measure, which took absolutely no account of the impact or of the people that you pretend to represent—Australia’s working families. Treasury estimates it is half a million; industry believes up to a million people will go out of private health insurance into the public system. We already have a crisis in the public health system. You take that half a million out and you single-handedly—