Mr RUDD (Griffith—Prime Minister) (15:47): I welcome this opportunity to speak in this matter of public importance debate. I note that the matter of public importance refers to a positive plan for Australia's future and I note that in the concluding remarks of Leader of the Opposition, the alternative Prime Minister of Australia, there was not a lot of positivity in those concluding remarks. Can I say to the Leader of the Opposition that we in the parliament have a big obligation to set something of a tone for the country. The Leader of the Opposition needs to go back to some basics—and we all need to—draw a deep breath and recognise that Australia is a very great country. We have a rational base to be optimistic about our future. Let us look at the strength of the economy. Nearly 20 years of sustained economic growth. This is ultimately almost unmatched by any significant economy around the world. Low unemployment. Low interest rates. These are extraordinary achievements. Also, debt and deficit levels which are the envy of the rest of the world. I would say to the Leader of the Opposition: if he would like a debate at the National Press Club on debt and deficit levels then I will name the date when we will have it. Opposition members interjecting— Mr RUDD: No, we'll name the date for the debate. Did everyone hear that? Honourable members interjecting— Mr RUDD: So we are going to be debating debt and deficit at the National Press Club. I thank the Leader of the Opposition for responding so positively to my challenge to debate policy options for Australia's future economy. Then you look at the remarkable strengths of the Australian people themselves. You know, you travel around the world and you see that in Australia we have remarkable social solidarity. We are a multicultural miracle to the rest of the world and as a result of which there is a huge dynamism in this country brought to our shores by successive waves of migrants over multiple decades. We are proud inheritors of that. So we have a rational basis to be optimistic about our future. We have excellent relations with our neighbours. Our diplomatic relations with our neighbours in South-East Asia, East Asia and the rest of our wider region are in first-class working order. We have every basis for optimism for the future. But, on top of that, I would say to the Leader of the Opposition and to those opposite that Australians, by instinct, are a positive people. We have always been that way. We have a can-do approach. If we see a problem, we get up, we fix it and we move on. The whole culture of our country is as a positive entrepreneurial country, and it is that sentiment which we on this side of the House intend to harness as we take the country forward. In my experience in public life, Australians disdain a culture of negativity. They disdain the negativity which, regrettably, has become characteristic of this place. What I have said earlier in question time today is that the easiest thing you can do in Australian national politics is to use negative invective. The hardest thing you can do is to sit down, look at the facts, get briefed on the facts, look at the policy options—look at evidence based policy—make a decision, then implement it and then make sure that what you have implemented is actually working, and if it is not then reform it and change it. That is the way you do public policy. Doing that properly in a positive way takes time and mental effort. Engaging in the politics of invective and negativity, frankly, takes about a nanosecond of time. This is another reflection I would leave to he who would put himself forward as the alternative Prime Minister of Australia. The other thing that I would say about our people—the Australian people right across this vast land of ours—is how much we as a nation relish our unity as a people and how we instinctively resile from those who seek to divide us into one camp or another. I would say again to the Leader of the Opposition that this Australian people wants to see all sides of the political debate work together for the nation's future. So, if you have a genuine contribution to what we do differently on the economy, on asylum seekers policy, on national security, on education, on health, on what we do with housing or on what we do in Indigenous policy, we would like to hear about it! That is why I said on the question of asylum seekers policy earlier today that, if the Leader of the Opposition would simply avail himself of the opportunity, we in the government would happily accommodate having him fully briefed by the national security agencies on every aspect of the circumstances which our brave men and women in uniform—the Australian Navy—confront on the high seas every day. That is the responsible approach. Then, once he has been briefed on the facts—one of them, of course, is public: the attitude of the government of Indonesia—he can then come and talk to us about what he thinks we should be doing differently, other than what we are. Because, other than that, it is just pure old politics. Mr Dutton interjecting— Mr RUDD: For those opposite who have trumpeted the 'Howard solution' as it was back in those days, I would say one thing: it was a staging post at Nauru, and 70 per cent of them all ended up back in good old Australia—an uncomfortable fact but a fact nonetheless. And do you know something? Facts tend to make our political opponents uncomfortable, because facts should form the basis of policy. So Australians would like us to be positive in this place. They have a disdain for the politics of negativity and they also have a disdain for the politics of division and disunity. There is one other thing that I would say to the Leader of the Opposition, and I would ask the Leader of the Opposition actually to reflect on this: those in the nation who observe the deliberations of the parliament would like us to show some basic civility to each other as well—some basic civility, and I have not seen a lot of that in evidence in recent times in this place. These, I believe, are the sentiments and the attitudes which the Australian people bring to their expectations of how we as a parliament and how we as a national government and how you as an alternative government behave in this place. In the Australian Labor Party, our view of political life is about building the house up. We believe in building the house up. It takes time: brick by brick, laying the foundations, setting the walls and constructing the roof. That is how we see the task of nation building; that is how we see our mission in politics. There is an alternative approach to politics which, unfortunately, I have seen too much of from the Leader of the Opposition, and it is: how do you tear the house down? We build up the house; it seems, regrettably, that those opposite are more interested in tearing the place down. I could say to those opposite: by instinct, I and my colleagues are nation builders. We believe that the business of the nation and the business of the nation's government is to build roads, to build rail, not to walk away from building rail, and to build a first-class, world-class National Broadband Network, and not simply to engage in the very cheap politics of scorn and derision—which is what we hear from those opposite. Can I say on top of that that, when it comes to the foundations of the house, we on this side of the House have laid strong economic foundations for Australia's future. We have strong economic growth—2.5 per cent over the year to March, almost the highest across a troubled OECD—and low unemployment, 5.5 per cent. But here is the killer. Those opposite talk about mismanagement on the part of the government. We have added one million jobs, almost, to the national workforce. Mr Robert interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Hon. BC Scott ): Order! The member for Fadden is being disorderly, interjecting outside of his place in this chamber. Mr RUDD: But, when we say that, those opposite resort to the old politics of negativity and derision. I also say to those opposite that, in laying these strong economic foundations, we have also brought about low inflation, at 2.5 per cent, well within the band set by the Reserve Bank and the regulators; record low interest rates; and strong public finances. I mentioned that during question time. We have a AAA credit rating, a productivity upswing and market sector labour market productivity up two per cent over the past year, though there is much still to be done with productivity in this country. In education, we have been rolling out the platform for an education revolution these last several years. Opposition members interjecting— Mr RUDD: I noticed some interjections just then. Do those opposite oppose the 3,000-plus libraries we have built in the schools of Australia? Do they oppose them? Every time I have been to an opening, I seem to have run into members of Her Majesty's most loyal opposition. That is because they actually know, in their heart of hearts, that it is a very good thing. I have never run into a P&C or P&F that, when you are opening a school library, say, 'We don't want this library.' Do you know why? Because we want to build up the intellectual capital of the country. That is why we have also built 200 to 300 trades-training centres right across the country, in conservative held electorates as well as Labor held electorates, and for the Nats as well—Paul, good to see you up there. I salute you for your career in this place. Mr Robert interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Fadden, you are testing my patience! Mr RUDD: Can I say also, on laying the economic foundations, that it is an education revolution which has now seen 190,000 more young people in universities than there were when we came to office. Why? We took a policy decision to uncap places— Mr Pyne interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Sturt is also testing my patience! Mr RUDD: so that more working families' kids could get university—people who are qualified to go but under the previous regime could not find a place. So you are going to have more kids at university; more opportunities for those pursuing the trades, through hundreds of trades-training centres; and wired libraries across the entire school system so our kids can be plugged into the best teaching facilities across the country. Then my colleague the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, is laying out world-class infrastructure through a proper decision-making process called Infrastructure Australia for road, for rail, for ports—across the entire spectrum. Without basic economic infrastructure, the nation's economic fundamentals cannot be guaranteed. That brings me, of course, to high-speed broadband, broadband which will be world class, 100 megabits-plus per second, in order to plug us into the information economy of the 21st century, to make sure, as I said in question time earlier today, that our brothers and sisters in the bush are not disadvantaged—every Australian, rich or poor, country or city, with access to the information superhighway. If you are a small business operating out of Wangaratta, you have as much opportunity to get your product or your service to market as you have if you are running a business in the central business district of Sydney. That is our belief in laying the foundations of the nation's house. We have also been in the business of constructing the walls. We have been pursuing a vigorous and strong foreign policy. We have—through both the Minister for Defence, who is now retiring from politics, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and also through the actions of multiple ministers—built the best set of bilateral relationships in Australia's region that we have had in this country's postwar history. That is just a fact. And we have been building a robust defence. We have major capital ships rolling off the production line. We have them about to join the ranks of the Australian Navy. We have also, of course, been working to improve Emergency Management Australia. These are all about how we maintain the security of the house. We are building the walls to make sure that they are robust against those threats which may come against us. Then, on top of that, we have been not just laying the foundations with the economy, not just building the walls in terms of security, but also, in completing the house, constructing a roof for the protection of all. And, by doing that, we are making sure that those suffering from disabilities are properly cared for so that all Australians can have proper protection should they suffer disability. We are investing $1 billion over four years to start rolling out the first stage of DisabilityCare Australia. In superannuation, we are raising the rate from nine to 12 per cent. In pensions, 3.5 million pensioners will be up to $207 a fortnight better off for singles and $236 better off for couples—the biggest pension increase in Australia's history. In health, we have invested $4.6 billion in dental care and we have invested some $16.4 billion in the hospital system. For the information of the Leader of the Opposition, the level of federal funding of national expenditure on hospitals at the time at which the government of which he was a minister left office was 38.7 per cent; we are now on track to raise that to 50 per cent. There is a simple difference—building a roof under which people can be protected should they fall ill. There is a $2.2 billion investment in mental health. In aged care, there is a $3.7 billion reform package by the minister who has been responsible for that. Then, beyond our task of laying the foundations, building the walls and constructing a roof for the protection of all, we have also been concerned about the environment beyond as well. We have acted on the environment. My colleague today referred to the achievements that we have delivered in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. This is the first time in the Federation's history that we have a plan to manage the most important ecosystem in the country's interior. I congratulate the minister for his work. It is a plan we took to the previous election in 2007. We have worked on it and done the hard policy work. We have acted on climate change. We have brought in a price on carbon. On top of that, we have also brought in a mandatory renewable energy target of 20 per cent. Australia's emissions are going down and, as a result of all that, we are ensuring that the environment surrounding the great house called Australia is properly protected. So I say to the Leader of the Opposition as we enter this period leading up to the national election that our task in politics is to build the nation's house up—lay strong foundations in the economy, in education and in infrastructure; build secure walls through our Defence Force and a strong foreign policy; and construct a roof which protects all Australians when they get into strife, whether through disability or through mental illness or other forms of illness—and to look after the environment as well. But I would say to the Leader of the Opposition— Mr Abbott interjecting— Mr RUDD: Regrettably, he seems to scoff and mock throughout this entire presentation. I would say this to him: his politics is not about building the house up; regrettably, his comfort zone is tearing the house down. I welcome the debate I will have with him at the National Press Club soon. (Time expired) The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I call the Leader of the Opposition. Government members: No! The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition has the call.