Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on the chamber’s consideration of the Appropriation (Nation Building and Jobs) Bill (No. 1) 2008-2009. Like all Australians, my thoughts are with the people of Victoria and the communities who have been so cruelly ravaged by the uncontrollable bushfires. My condolences and sympathies are with everyone affected by the disaster. I would also like to place on record my appreciation for the efforts of the courageous volunteers who risked their lives and their safety to help others. I also want to thank the state and federal public servants who are working tirelessly to assist those affected by this disaster.

While the Victorian disaster is an immediate priority, we must continue to deal with the unprecedented global financial crisis facing Australia. I was fortunate to participate in the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration inquiry into the provisions of the nation building and jobs package. Before I go to the issues arising from the inquiry and the specifics of the conclusions, it is appropriate to make a few general comments on the bill. This nation is facing a historic and unparalleled challenge as a result of the global economic crisis. The government has risen to the challenge in an economically responsible and decisive manner. Our task is to do whatever we can to shield the Australian economy and the Australian public from the emerging global recession. Our nation building and jobs package is about sustaining and supporting up to 90,000 jobs over the next two years. Our plan is about providing support for working Australians and their communities. Our plan is about supporting the nation in the face of huge international pressures that have seen banks collapse, lending dry up and business activity stall. This is resulting in massive increases in unemployment and social dislocation around the world.

There has been much said about the government’s package from those opposite. I note in the minority report that coalition senators claimed they have reached the conclusion that the package does not conform with what they refer to as ‘best economic theory’. This goes to the heart of the opposition’s inability to accept and understand that there must now be a strong role for government to assist the nation to withstand the worst effects of the global recession. Workers around the world and around our nation face the loss of their jobs, the loss of their homes, the loss of their dignity. The Australian public is not interested in the coalition’s view of what is best economic theory. The coalition’s best economic theory helped deliver this economic disaster and their best economic theory failed to identify the impending global recession. Stop lecturing us about best economic theory. The Australian public wants a government that is decisive, economically competent, caring and compassionate. This is not a time for theorising; it is a time for decisive action. The nation building and jobs package meets this test.

The opposition, on the basis of their ideological embrace of neoliberal economic theory—the theory they claim they are all so proud to espouse—want a minimal role for government in the operation of the market and society. Years of corporate greed and years of small government have left our nation ill-equipped to deal with this huge market failure that has unprecedented global consequences.

I am a strong supporter of having a proper balance between allowing the markets to work and ensuring a strategic role for government when markets do not work. The Labor government have ensured that we do not make the mistake of acting too late in the face of the international global financial meltdown. The package has been developed with a clear understanding of the need to act to stimulate the domestic economy and play our part in freeing up financial and market activity around the world. We have a role in the global economy, not just the national economy, to make sure that we deal effectively with this great crisis of financial instability around the world. On that basis, we have developed a responsible package that has received widespread support from state governments of all political persuasions—even the Western Australian government—from business, from unions and from community groups.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, formerly thought to be central to the coalition’s political base, says this of the package:

We thought the stimulus package should be in the order of over 2% of GDP and that’s in fact what’s delivered, and we believe that’s absolutely essential.

All of the arguments from the other side, all of the scare tactics about government debt, are blown away by the ACCI. The ACCI, who have been close to the Liberal Party over many years, have indicated clearly their unequivocal support for the government’s package. And why are they supporting the government’s package? They are supporting the government’s package because it is economically responsible. It is a package that meets the requirements of the grave challenges facing the working families of this nation, the challenges facing the businesses of this nation. It is economically responsible, decisive and goes to the issues that are important to make sure that we sustain our economic activity in the face of an economic meltdown of business activity around the world.

It is not just the ACCI who recognise the economic responsibility and decisiveness of the Labor government. The Chief Executive of the Business Council of Australia, Katie Lahey, told the Sydney Morning Herald last week:

The government’s responsible approach to keeping stimulus measures timely, well targeted at those who’ll spend it, and temporary, will ensure the spending will not be a dead weight on our ability to achieve future growth and surpluses.

Again, the Business Council of Australia have destroyed the fear tactics and the arguments that are coming from the other side. They recognise that responsible economic management from the government is the best way forward and that the package will support jobs, will support economic recovery and will ensure that we have targeted the levers that are required to be pulled by government to sustain the economy over this period of time. The Business Council of Australia are not decrying the surplus. The Business Council of Australia are not decrying government intervention.

The problem from the other side is that they are so deeply engaged in economic theory, in economic nonsense, that the world is abandoning them. They are so steeped in this economic theory that they cannot act in the national interest. They just cannot bring themselves to reject the theory and deal with the practice of preventing this nation from falling into a deep recession. They are doing this by lies, they are doing this by misinformation and they are doing it on the basis of a theory that is discredited all around the world. Do not just take it from me; again, look to business. What does Heather Ridout, the Chief Executive of the Ai Group say in terms of what is required? She says:

The nation building and jobs plan announced by the Federal Government today is simple and substantial, and will provide a big stimulus to help keep the economy moving. Together with the interest rate cut, it has been a big day for monetary and fiscal policy—it’s a case of ‘all hands on deck’.

The package targets consumer spending, which is absolutely critical to our near-term economic prospects, and boosts capital expenditure—looming as one of the real casualties of the downturn.

Heather Ridout is right in most of what she says, but she is not right that all hands are on deck, because the Liberal-National Party coalition have abandoned the ship. They have abandoned the ship at a time when all hands should be on deck. The AiG are correct: there should be all hands on deck in this parliament to make sure that this nation does not slide into recession. But when the business community are calling for all hands on deck the coalition have deserted the ship and they have deserted their obligation to act economically responsibly in the interests of the nation. That is what we are faced with on the other side of this chamber.

It is clear that the business community support this package. They support the decisive and responsible action that has been taken by the government. There have been no histrionics, no petty politics and no fear campaigns from the business sector. They know that what the Labor Party is doing is right for this economy and right for the nation. All the histrionics and all the fear campaigns are coming from the coalition. I think this nation deserves better in these very bad times that we are facing.

Unlike the shadow Treasurer, the Australian public do not want us to gaze at our navels, sitting and waiting to see what happens. How ridiculous is it that we have a coalition who claim false economic credibility? This is being pulled apart in their nonsense approach to this package. They want us to sit and wait and see what happens. Well, we are not prepared to sit and wait and see workers’ jobs destroyed, communities pulled apart and more social dislocation because of an economic theory from the other side. This is no economic theoretical debate; this is a debate about ensuring that governments act decisively and act in the national interest. The public do not want an arcane debate about economic theories and they have demonstrated that they have had enough of the scare tactics of the opposition.

Scare tactics, misinformation and political point-scoring: that is what underpins the opposition’s short-term political opportunism. The opposition would have us believe that this package represents an overreaction to the crisis. Not one businessperson of substance believes that to be the situation. We want you to get back on deck. We want you to be with us saving this nation from an unnecessary recession. Do not abandon the ship. (Time expired)