Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Obviously Work Choices is a very sore point with the opposition. A generation of workers who entered that system were vulnerable, and those young workers who were not aware of their rights, Australians who did not have experience to fall back on, were the worst affected. Labor has repealed Work Choices and brought Australia through the worst financial shock since the Great Depression with an economy that is growing. Labor is managing that economy in a much more responsible manner than those opposite did.

How do we know this? We know this because the Labor government has received a triple-A credit rating from all three rating agencies, a rating that those opposite could not achieve while in government. Under Labor, Australia sits with just six other countries in the world with top credit ratings, and doesn't that touched a nerve with those opposite! The facts show that Labor is actually the more fiscally responsible party, the better managers of the economy, insofar as job creation through the global financial crisis, the worst financial shock to the world economy since the Great Depression, and because we are actually a lower taxing government than those opposite were.

A great fact that those opposite wish they could escape is that tax as a proportion of GDP under Labor is lower than it was under the previous coalition government. Former Prime Minister Howard and his Treasurer Costello presided over what was in fact the highest taxing government in memory. We are doing more with what we have been given than those opposite could have dreamt of doing, and we are doing it while keeping our focus on the changes needed to keep Australia competitive going forward. We put a price on carbon, the price that those opposite have almost forgotten about because it did not come with the big shock that they were so hoping it would. We are building the NBN that those opposite have opposed all the way—a network that will connect all Australians with superfast broadband, enabling more efficient provision of health and education services, as well as opening up endless opportunities for businesses. We are increasing retirement savings through superannuation reforms and boosts to the pension, whilst—