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

Senator Ronaldson is a very active senator, a long way away from the age pension. It would stop assistance to people with disabilities. This is very serious. This is what your $70 billion mistake could well lead to—stopping assistance to people with disabilities for three years, stopping family tax benefit payments for three years and requiring savings equivalent to 1½ times the GST for a year. Whilst those opposite focus on negativity and talking down the Australian economy, the Labor government is getting on with the business of providing sound economic management. Recent global economic turmoil has been felt across the world, including concerns about the debt situation in Europe and the United States. It will take time for the European and United States economies to get their houses in order. They will have to make tough decisions to reduce their debt to ensure that their budgets are sustainable. This will impact on the outlook of the global economy for some time. However, we should remember that in Australia the fundamentals of our economy remain strong in comparison to the rest of the world. The International Monetary Fund highlighted recently that in Australia we have very low public debt, low unemployment and a massive pipeline of investment and we expect to bring the budget back to surplus—although, as the Treasurer has outlined and highlighted, this task has been made much tougher due to the current global events.

This government has a strong track record of economic management of the Australian economy. Look at our record during the global financial crisis. In a time when advanced economies around the world have been suffering from the largest global recession in over 70 years, the Australian economy has performed remarkably well, and that is no coincidence. The strong performance of the Australian economy can be put down to the early, decisive action taken by the Labor government. We have injected short-term cash stimulus as well as medium- and long-term infrastructure spending to keep the Australian economy in strong shape.

What did those opposite want us to do in these times of global financial crisis? They advocated a sit-on-the-hands approach. That is right: they wanted us to do nothing. They wanted to send the Australian economy down the gurgler and, along with it, Australian families. But not on this side of the chamber. The Labor government's decisive action, stimulus measures and sound fiscal management helped cushion the Australian economy from the worst impacts of the global financial crisis.

Recently more proof of the strength of the Australian economy was forthcoming with the release of the national accounts for the June quarter. The encouraging figures tell us that our economy grew by 1.2 per cent in the June quarter. These figures represent the strongest quarterly results in four years. Whilst there was a slight increase in the unemployment rate to 5.3 per cent, let us not lose sight of the big picture, which tells us that there are 140,000 more people employed today than there were 12 months ago. The Treasurer has also said that we expect to create another 500,000 jobs in the next couple of years. This is on top of the 750,000 jobs we have already created since coming to office in 2007, including 189,000 in the last year alone.

Whilst there was a slight increase in unemployment last month, fundamentally our labour force participation rate remains strong, especially in comparison to the rest of the world. The unemployment rate in the United States is 9.1 per cent. It is 7.2 per cent in Canada, 7.7 per cent in the United Kingdom, 9.7 per cent in France and 20.9 per cent in Spain. As the Treasurer has highlighted, when we entered the global financial crisis Australia's unemployment rate was the same as that of the US. If that were still the case and we had the same unemployment levels as the United States, an extra 486,000 Australians would be out of work.

Our swift action during the global financial crisis has ensured that Australians have remained in work and that our economy is the envy of the rest of the developed world. We have ensured that every new spending measure is offset with the appropriate budget savings measure to maintain the integrity of the budget bottom line. Savings will be delivered that will combat any write-down in government revenue as a result of the high dollar. We have maintained the tough provision of a spending cap on new budget initiatives to ensure that we act in an economically responsible way. We are doing what we can to support families. We have deployed three rounds of tax cuts to help with the costs of raising and educating kids. We have an ongoing economic plan to build productivity and expand our economic capacity so that we have growth and low inflation into the future. And we are doing all this under a strict fiscal strategy to see us get our budget back in the black, well ahead of every major advanced economy.

We, unlike those opposite, are working hard to support Australians, to continue our sound fiscal management of the economy and to bring the budget back into the black. Whilst we are focused on strong economic management backed up by fiscal responsibility, we are also in the process of getting on with good government, which stands in stark contrast to the action taken by those opposite when they were in government. Those opposite were busy riding on the economic boom time. They failed to invest in vital infrastructure and productivity needed to help drive the Australian economy forward to the future. They also ignored vital human services such as health, education and income support. Whilst those opposite are busy trying to score cheap political points, as we see today in this general business motion, we, the Labor government, on this side of the chamber, are getting on with the business of delivering our ambitious long-term reform agenda. Since coming to office we have invested in the vital services and infrastructure needs across the country, with a renewed focus on regional Australia, and we have done so in the face of the toughest global economic conditions in 70 years. In spite of these extremely tough economic conditions, the Labor government has helped to shield and protect the Australian economy through the implementation of our nation-building and jobs stimulus package. And, yes, this has worked. The evidence backs it up. In fact, as has been outlined numerous times, the Australian economy has fared the best out of all the advanced economies around the world. We have implemented our historic pension reform, providing age pensioners with the largest single increase to the age pension. As part of the budget, the Treasurer announced that we will provide more tax assistance to 6.5 million Australian taxpayers on lower incomes. This will help encourage work and also provide some help with cost-of-living pressures.

The government will increase the low-income tax offset from 50 per cent to 70 per cent. This will put an extra bit in the weekly pay packet. Whilst it is a modest amount, every little bit helps. The increase to the low-income tax offset will mean that someone with an annual income of $30,000 will get an extra $300 in their regular pay during the year.

The government has also delivered, as part of the budget, a $2.2 billion mental health package, which aims to provide more intensive support services and better coordinate those services for people with severe and persistent mental illness who have complex care needs; to target support to areas and communities that need it most, such as Indigenous communities and socioeconomically disadvantaged areas that are underserviced by the current system; and to help detect potential mental health problems in the early years, supporting young people who struggle with mental illness.

Whilst those opposite were in government they neglected Australia's hospital system for over a decade, and we in Tasmania know that better than anyone. They left the country's health system in a shambles through a tale of neglect and via the removal of $1 billion from the health system. It is also worth remembering that those opposite capped GP training places. However, the Labor government has delivered a health funding agreement with the states and territories, with the federal government investing $16.4 billion into the health system. This will help deliver 1,300 new subacute hospital beds, more than 6,000 new doctors, strict deadlines for emergency departments and elective surgery waiting times, and tough national standards, such as a four-hour emergency waiting time—just to name a few elements of the new deal.

The Labor government is also making key investments in education with the largest school modernisation program in the country's history—our Building the Education Revolution. This is providing our children with the best environment in which to learn as well as supporting local jobs and local communities. Right around the country we are delivering much-needed school halls, libraries, science and language centres and classroom upgrades to many schools that for too long were neglected under the watch of those opposite.