Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On 24 November 2007 Australians elected a Rudd Labor government and tossed out an out-of-touch, stale government, a government of core and non-core promises. The opposition matter of public importance motion that we are debating, as bad as it is, shows that the opposition are still out of touch and have no idea of Australian values and ideals. I think Senator Mason may have drawn the short straw on this one. Senator Mason tried hard but it did seem to me that his heart was just not in it—intent on playing the man and not the ball. Why? Because the election of the Rudd Labor government generated a renewed sense of optimism and hope in this country. Indeed, when elected a one year ago, the Prime Minister outlined a firm vision for this country’s future, one grounded in building a fairer and better resourced nation equipped to met the challenges of the 21st century. A year on and the Prime Minister has stuck steadfast to that original vision and this government is well on its way to delivering on all that which it set out to achieve. A year on and, despite being confronted with what has been billed as the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression, the Rudd government has remained focused, rolled its sleeves up, dug in its heels and set about doing all that it can do to build a stronger, secure and vibrant future for this nation.

It is hard to begin to list our achievements over the past short year. They are indeed many and of equal value in terms of their significance. For the benefit of those opposite, however, let me begin. In one short year, the Rudd Labor government has set about building a stronger Australia. We have delivered an economically responsible budget boasting a $21 billion surplus, which has put us in good stead during these unusually tough times; taken some of the load off the household budget by providing tax cuts for working families and low-income earners and introducing measures such as the 50 per cent childcare rebate and the education tax refund; and started our education revolution by building trade training centres in high schools and installing over 116,000 computers in 896 schools, with a ratio of one to two. That is in contrast—as we heard earlier today from Minister Carr—to the Howard government’s ratio of one to eight and up to one to 12. That is indeed a remarkable difference.

We have also invested more than $2 billion in trade training places in the VET sector over the next five years and embarked on a nation-building program and committed $26 billion to three new building Australia funds, which include the Building Australia Fund for transport and communications infrastructure, the Education Investment Fund for education and infrastructure and the Health and Hospitals Fund for improved health infrastructure.

On top of this, the government also announced the $10.4 billion Economic Security Strategy to stimulate the Australian economy and further support Australian households. The strategy includes an immediate $4.8 billion down payment on pension reform; $3.9 billion worth of financial support payments to low- and middle-income families; $1.5 billion worth of assistance for first home buyers; the creation of 56,000 new trade training places in 2008-09; and the acceleration of the implementation of the government’s nation-building funds to 2009.

The government has also committed to guaranteeing all depositors and all deposits on term funding in all Australian banks, building societies and credit unions for the next three years. On 10 November the government announced a $6.2 billion investment in a New Car Plan for a Greener Future. More recently the Rudd Labor government delivered $466 million to local councils across the nation. Councils in my home state of Tasmania will share in over $8 million of funding, which will help them deliver vital infrastructure to their local communities.

The Rudd Labor government also made a firm commitment to making Australia not only stronger but fairer. Indeed, some of the government’s most significant actions since being elected have arguably been in the area of social reform. In the past year it has taken the first important steps toward bridging the gap between Indigenous—