Mr SHORTEN (Maribyrnong—Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation) (15:39): On the matter of public importance, I waited with my usual optimism to hear something constructive from the shadow Treasurer, but yet again nothing came out. If we are going to have a debate about the reasonable management of the economy, we need to set up the tests for that management. I would submit to the House that there is a number of reasonable tests: getting the big calls right; balancing the books; identifying existing problems in our economy and our society and fixing them; making sure that our economy grows fairly and inclusively; looking at the alternative management strategy, that is, of the opposition; and, most importantly, having innovative ideas and an optimistic vision for the future. These are the criteria. These, I submit, are the things Australians are interested in: getting the big calls right; balancing the books; identifying the major problems; seeing that the economy grows fairly and inclusively; examining if there are better alternative options; and making sure that we have an optimistic long-term view—not just for today or tomorrow, next week or next month or next year but for the next decade or the next two decades. Returning to the submissions on the efficient and effective management of the economy, let us have a look at the big calls; let us look at the scoreboard for the government. On the global financial crisis: unlike most of the rest of the OECD, this nation managed to escape recession. Let us look at the big calls in the workplace: we reformed and abolished the unfair Work Choices laws of our predecessors which were leading us in a race to the bottom in wages and conditions. We abolished the minimum standards which would see our children and our grandchildren being paid inferior and unfair wages. Let us look at another big call that we have got right: the information superhighway, the National Broadband Network, the innovation for the 21st century, which allows Australians to compete with the rest of the world. Let us look at another call we got right: flood reconstruction. No-one could have predicted these floods, but what options were available? Using the national economy, we set a levy and found the funds to help rebuild the terribly damaged infrastructure, mainly in Queensland but in other places too. We are also getting the big call right about finally acting on creating a sustainable economy by putting a price on carbon pollution. Indeed, have a look at the most immediate big call we had: dealing with the precipitous and over-the-top lockout at Qantas, stranding tens of thousands of passengers and travellers and grounding hundreds of aeroplanes. So there we go, we got the big calls right—the GFC, Work Choices, NBN, flood reconstruction, the carbon price and the most recent imbroglio and confusion created by Qantas shutting down its airline. There is another submission which shows that we are managing the economy reasonably—that is, the need to balance the books. When you look at our net public sector debt in the Commonwealth to GDP, you see we are doing better than most of the rest of the world. It is going to peak at seven per cent; our interest payments are 0.4 per cent. Let us be very clear what the GFC did: the GFC absolutely slammed government revenue, but we have managed to engage in the fastest fiscal contraction since records began. That is $100 billion across four budgets. We have been winding back the Howard government's welfare creep. Indeed, when we came to power at the end of 2007, nearly 75 per cent of Australian families were receiving some family payment from the government. This was not sustainable and we have been winding that back. Look at the departmental efficiency dividend we have been applying to get our numbers back into the black—1.5 per cent. This I believe contrasts very favourably to the ill-thought-out opposition policies, which I will come to in a moment. Having said that we get the big calls right and having said that we balance the books, we have also identified existing problems and we are in the process of fixing them. We do have a multispeed economy. You would have to live on another planet not to recognise that the mining boom, whilst it is good for some sections of the Australian economy, is causing dislocation in other parts of the economy. We have a very high dollar, which makes it hard for domestic tourism, domestic education services and local manufacturers to compete. So what are we doing? We have introduced the minerals resource rent tax so that we will share the prosperity that the richest companies in the world are enjoying from non-renewable resources—Australians' birthright—throughout the whole of the Australian Commonwealth; we are going to provide the 29 per cent corporate tax break; we are going to provide $1 billion in tax breaks for small business; we are going to build national infrastructure; and we are certainly going to lift compulsory superannuation from nine per cent to 12 per cent. Never let it be forgotten that those opposite get 15 per cent super but would vote against 8½ million Australians getting 12 per cent. I look up the dictionary and that is coalition hypocrisy of the worst order. I note there are no interjections from them on that point because they know I am right. We also look at the unfair fees in superannuation— Opposition members interjecting— Mr SHORTEN: Now they come up with interjections when they guiltily realise they have been caught out with their hand in the cookie jar of superannuation. Mr Christensen: Play a different tune! Mr SHORTEN: If the member for Dawson is bored, why doesn't he go and find something else to do? Dial a friend! Fees in superannuation are unfair, so we are going to have SuperStream and MySuper and make sure that we put downward pressure on fees and charges in superannuation. We are going to improve and reform the provision of financial advice in Australia. Mr Briggs interjecting— Mr SHORTEN: I can hear the member for Mayo, the mini-me of Peter Reith, interjecting. We are the only people who will even listen to him—his own side keep gagging him. We have the Future of Financial Advice reforms, and we are going to reform financial planning. We are going to reduce the confusion around flood insurance and sort out a common definition so that never again will Australians have to go through fruitless and frustrating arguments with their insurer as to whether or not they are covered for flood. We are also making many more reforms in many other areas. Having said that we are identifying existing problems and fixing them, that we are balancing the books and that we are getting the big calls right, I would submit in support of the proposition that we are managing the economy efficiently the fact that we are making sure that the economy grows fairly and inclusively. We understand that change is an inevitable part of Australian life, but we are determined to make sure that no-one gets left behind, as opposed to a coalition society where, if you cannot survive for yourself— Mr Fletcher interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Hon. Peter Slipper ): It is Thursday afternoon and, while I admire the exuberance of the member for Bradfield, he should restrain himself at this point in time. The Assistant Treasurer has the call. Mr SHORTEN: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for pulling up the member for Bradfield. We are making sure that we do not forget social justice. Australia as a nation is in a process of change, but we can never forget people in that process of change. We have increased the pension. We have engaged in income tax cuts. Fortuitously, I have to hand some of the statistics on the personal income tax cuts that this government has delivered. Someone earning $20,000 is paying $750 less this financial year than they were in 2007-08. Someone earning $30,000 is paying $750 less than they would have been in the last year of the Howard government. Someone earning $50,000 is paying $1,750 less this financial year than they would have been in the last year the Howard government. Mr Briggs interjecting— Mr Fletcher interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The members for Mayo and Bradfield will desist from continual interjections. Mr SHORTEN: I get more sense off a bunch of crows on a power line than those two! The person earning $80,000 is paying $1,400 less this year, even including the flood levy, than they would have paid under the Howard government. So we have been delivering real change. For instance, a single person without children earning $39,000 in 2007-08 and $44,500 in 2010-11 has seen their tax wedge fall by 1.7 percentage points to 14.9 per cent in 2010-11. These are real numbers, and the real numbers are confronting to the opposition. We are doing other things in the field of social justice which should not be overlooked. The most important thing you can do for social justice is create a job. If an Australian has a job they have a chance of engaging in the housing market and of educating their kids: they have a stake in society. Since Labor has been elected, 752,000 jobs have been created. When you look at what has been happening around the world in the global financial crisis, 30 million jobs have gone; yet in Australia under a Labor government 752,000 jobs have been created. We have increased the family payments for families with teenagers between 16 and 19. As any parent with a teenager between 16 and 19 knows, they do not get any cheaper the older they get. The government is also proposing a particularly equitable piece of law, and we put the bill into the parliament yesterday, but the coalition is regrettably opposing it. There are 3½ million Australians who earn less than $37,000 a year, which means that they either pay no tax or 15 per cent in income tax. But what happens with their superannuation, since superannuation is taxed concessionally at 15 per cent? That 15 per cent concessional tax is all right if you pay a higher rate in income tax, because there is then an advantage to put your money in super at the lower tax rate. The problem is that, if you are one of the 3½ million lower income Australians, you do not get the benefit of that tax concession. So what are we going to do? We are going to abolish it. What will happen is that, if you earn less than $37,000 a year, you will no longer pay tax on your superannuation—it will all go into your superannuation. It does not just stop there, though. We have now extended and developed the education tax refund, providing more help for families with the cost of educating their kids. the education tax refund has been extended to include school uniforms and a range of other incidental costs. These are the costs parents have, and they are DNA-hardwired to pay them for their kids because they want their kids to get the best start in life. What we are doing is helping them in that process of educating the kids. Having said that we get the big calls right, that we balance the books, that we identify the existing problems and are fixing them, that we are into social justice and that we are making sure Australians have an opportunity to cope in an ever-changing world, we must look at some of the coalition myths. Getting criticism from the opposition about economic management seems a little rich when I look at their costing errors. In the election period last year they had a $10.6 billion costing black hole. The opposition need to know that taxpayers' money is not monopoly money; it is real money, and you should not have black hole. Some of their costing errors— Mr Briggs interjecting— Mr SHORTEN: Perhaps if the member for Mayo spoke less and listened more there would be a chance that he would learn more. I apologise—I did not mean to imply he was learning! Their costing errors included spending $3.3 billion from the nation-building funds on local roads and not accounting for it in their numbers. They did not account for $356 million in their employment participation policy. They did not allow for $2.5 billion. They reduced what is known as the conservative bias allowance, which Treasury says does not realise any actual budgetary savings. Treasury and finance have identified literally hundreds of millions of dollars. Mr Robb interjecting— Mr SHORTEN: I understand why the member for Goldstein attempts to interrupt me: he is embarrassed because he is in charge of this economic smash-up—this economic road crash. Let us have a look at the final thing which, I would submit, shows that we are the party capable of economic management. We are the only party with an innovative and positive view of the future. If you have not been convinced already—by our balancing the books, by our working at fixing the problems, by our propositions of social justice and by the litany of opposition costing errors which are more like something done by Homer Simpson than by a serious opposition—then I submit to you three points among the collection of propositions that we are advancing for the future of Australia. Firstly, we want to lift compulsory superannuation to 12 per cent. The opposition know it is a good idea—they get 15 per cent or defined benefit. The first rule of leadership is: don't just say it; practice what you preach. If they are willing to take 15 per cent for themselves, why can't the rest of Australia get 12 per cent? It does not stop there. Secondly, we are now spending, as a down payment on the future, $3 billion on productivity through training apprentices and training trainees. Nearly half a million Australian people are on the path of apprenticeships and training. There is a third idea which, I submit to you, demonstrates our capacity to manage the economy on behalf of the society as a whole. I think a lot of people on the Labor side know what that is: the proposition of a national disability insurance scheme. Mr Robb interjecting— Mr SHORTEN: The opposition interjects on such a good idea—very heartless. A national disability insurance scheme is a long overdue proposition for this nation. Why should someone, because they are born with an impairment or acquire it in a blink of an eye, live a second-class life in Australia? Why should their carers live a second-class life? This party of government, this Labor Party, understand that it is now time to set right the wrong that has been occurring for a very long time in Australia. We are establishing the foundations for a national disability insurance scheme. We are working on a national injury insurance scheme. We are determined to make sure that two million Australians with profound or severe disability and their carers finally get included in Australian society on an equal basis. (Time expired)