Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Abetz simply represents a party that have said no. The minute they saw this package they said no to it. Now he wants to sit in the chamber and avoid listening to the arguments in support of such a package, particularly the necessity for such a package to stimulate the Australian economy at this time. These are things that he should sit down and listen to, instead of taking a position of saying no. But of course the worst position that this particular opposition take is not saying no; they want to say, ‘Oh, let’s wait and see. Let’s sit on our hands. Let’s do nothing.’ I do not know what they want to wait for and what they want to see. It is as if they do not understand that there is an economic and financial crisis. There is an economic and financial crisis, Senator Abetz—through you, Madam Temporary Chairman.

They fail to see that they cannot appreciate the unprecedented nature of this crisis. It was not long ago that I heard President Obama actually say that if we do not act now and that if we do not act decisively this crisis may well become a catastrophe. That is what the opposition over there, which simply does nothing and has abandoned the Australian economy and, as a consequence, has abandoned the Australian people, want to happen. That is what they want to happen to this country. They want this global economic crisis to become a catastrophe, because of their medium- to long-term political opportunism. Well, we on this side, as a responsible government, do not accept that. We will not abandon the Australian economy. We will not abandon the Australian people. There is overwhelming evidence from every source that we need a stimulus package and we need one of the magnitude and the direction that this package and its package of bills provide for the Australian economy. It is a disgrace and it is shameful for the opposition to put their heads in the sand, abandon the Australian people and abandon the Australian economy. It is appalling.

Where is the evidence to say that such a fiscal package is necessary? It comes from the experts themselves. Let us go back to the Senate committee hearing. Senator Cameron asked a question of Dr Henry during the committee of inquiry into this package of bills. Senator Cameron said:

There has been some commentary this morning that we should … wait to see how the global recession pans out. Is there any economic basis for that statement that you would be aware of?

This is Dr Henry’s response:

For how long should one sit and wait? Obviously that is not a view that we have taken in providing advice to government. These are highly unusual circumstances, and we have advised government—and I indicated in questioning before a parliamentary committee on an earlier occasion that we had provided advice to government—that there was a need for fiscal policy action and that it was quite urgent.

This is what Treasury, Australia’s own Treasury, says: there is a need for fiscal stimulus and it is needed now. Of course the opposition can simply ignore the same Treasury that was there when they were in government and was providing advice to them in managing the economy. But now that they are in opposition, and because they are taking a political, opportunistic attitude to this matter, they simply want to discard that professional advice from Treasury. It is an appalling position.

Treasury are not the only ones that actually know that this stimulus package of bills needs to be passed. I refer to comments in today’s Australian Financial Review by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Greg Evans in an article headed ‘Rudd’s cash stimulates new friends’. ACCI, as everyone would know, have never been great supporters of or a great cheer squad for the Labor Party, but they have been a cheer squad for the opposition, those over there who will not even listen to their own cheer squad now. ACCI know what needs to be done and they also know that the opposition’s resistance to this package is simply politics—not about financial responsibility and not about economic responsibility but about political opportunism. Greg Evans said:

“… ACCI strongly supports the government’s stimulus package and its attempt to lift aggregate demand across the economy. Such is the scope of our current economic difficulties that this package, combined with monetary easing, is absolutely essential”.

There is no doubt in the mind of the biggest peak body of business that this package is ‘absolutely essential’. What does the Adelaide Advertiser say today in relation to the Senate not passing this stimulus package yesterday? It says:

To put it bluntly, it is inappropriate for a single senator to have this kind of deliberative power—especially at such a crucial time.

Economists of virtually all persuasions, central banks, and the International Monetary Fund, have called for exceptional, immediate government spending to keep economies ticking over to ameliorate the worst effects of the downturn.

It goes on to say:

The Rudd Government so far has shown an admirable willingness to act decisively as this crisis has unfolded.

And of course we did. Everyone will recall that last year we introduced a stimulus package. People have said, ‘Oh, well, stimulus packages may or may not work,’ and the irresponsible opposition have taken the view: ‘Let’s just wait and see and watch the crisis unfold.’ But what does the Age say today? Under the banner ‘First cash splash helped jobs rate’, the article reads:

EVIDENCE pointing to the success of the first fiscal stimulus package has been presented to the Federal Government just as the Senate has rejected the latest one.

Employment held steady in January against expectations and buoyed by a surprise jump in the number of women employed full time.

The article goes on to say:

“We see this as evidence of the efficacy of temporary spikes in income on activity,” said the Deutsche Bank chief economist Tony Meer.

So the Deutsche Bank chief economist supported our first stimulus package. He sees it as evidence. The evidence is there, yet this opposition, in an irresponsible, political, opportunistic manner, seeks to block this government from governing, from taking the necessary action that is required to stimulate the economy and protect jobs. It is blocking this government from protecting jobs for the future, protecting our economy, stopping the economy contracting, providing the basis for the economic capacity into the future and positioning this country well for the time when the economic global crisis is over, positioning us well so we are in the strongest possible position to take advantage of when the tide starts to turn.

One thing is certain: global economic times will change, and Australia needs to be positioned to take full advantage of that so that we can ride the wave of prosperity and fulfil our economic capacity. If we go into serious recession, if we do not act now, we will not be leading the recovery; we will be following the recovery. To those over there who talk about debt and the burden on our future—and I am going to give you a few examples in a minute—let me tell you that those people who want to have a larger economic capacity to find jobs have the ability to pay back deficit, and they will thank us for the actions we are taking. We are positioning this economy for the future. We do not want to let it sink, like this irresponsible opposition. They would be happy for it to sink, happy for a crisis to turn into a catastrophe.

I am very aware of the real impact that is happening now. Maybe some of the opposition senators should get out and start talking to people and see what is happening in the economy. Yesterday I rang Victec, which is a group training company. It trains apprentices. For the information of senators, group training companies work by providing the direct employment of apprentices in a group sense. Different contractors, small and large, as they get jobs, as their staff needs increase or decrease, take apprentices from that pool. The apprentices then move around different companies and get the full training. This significantly helps small businesses in particular. They may not be able to make the four-year commitment to take on an apprentice, but they may be able to take on an apprentice two days a week. Therefore, an apprentice may work two days a week with one company, three days with another, and it moves through. That trains apprentices. That provides the skill base for our economy. That provides protection for our skills capacity into the future.

I rang Victec yesterday. Since January, 70 of their electrical and plumbing apprentices—this particular company specialises in electrical and plumbing—are now on down time. That is one-third of the company, one-third of the apprentices that they employ. That is happening now. What happens if the economy is not stimulated to enable work to continue? If I get a chance I will go into some of the programs that are going to create stimulus in the building and construction industry which will enable these apprentices to keep jobs, finish their training and enable us to contribute to the economic capacity when times improve. If these apprentices cannot complete their apprenticeships, they disappear. When we need skilled tradesmen in the future, they simply will not be there. Group training companies are a great barometer of where it is going at the moment.

I cannot promise that this package or the last package will definitely save those 70 jobs or even more. But one thing I do know, one thing this government can guarantee is that with the introduction of this stimulus package things will not be as bad as they are going to get without it. Things will be significantly better than they otherwise would have been with this stimulus package. It is absolutely ridiculous for the opposition to sit over there and say, ‘Let’s do nothing.’ Explain that to the 70 apprentices at Victec that are now on down time because there is no work.

Victec does an analysis and talks to its electrical and plumbing contractors to see what the likelihood is of re-employment of those apprentices. What it says is that there is very little tendering going on in the building and construction industry. What worries me more is that it also reports that architects are being put off. The logic of that is that if architects are not designing buildings, there will be no tendering for building. You cannot build a building that has not been designed. And if buildings are not going to be built, there is not going to be any work for tradespeople, there are not going to be any apprentices. So not only are the opposition risking the employment of these apprentices and others across the country, they are also sabotaging our skills base for the future. If these apprentices are not qualified, they go; they simply disappear.

I have heard no justification at all from the opposition about why we should not proceed with the stimulus package. In fact, every now and again, one of them says: ‘We agree. There needs to be a stimulus package. We agree there needs to be one.’ They do not know what it is, but they are just happy to say no to us. They have abandoned our economy and they have abandoned every single Australian in this country, and they ought to be judged harshly for it.