Mr DANBY (Melbourne Ports) (21:58): Mr Speaker, I congratulate you on your new position. During the January break I had the opportunity to participate in presenting a view of Australia to the foreign affairs committee of the Italian parliament in Rome on 20 January. Many of the arguments I raised with the 16 Italian MPs present at a private hearing were drawn from some of the brilliant arguments—that is the only way I can describe them—in Mr Peter Hartcher, the international affairs editor of the Sydney Morning Herald's, article in the Spectator, 'The envy of the world', and in his great book, The Sweet Spot. I explained to the Italian parliamentarians that, as Mr Hartcher wrote: Going into 2011, Australia's unemployment rate of five per cent was half that of Europe or America. Australia astonishes; … Australia has a higher average income per head of population than Germany, Japan, Singapore or France, a figure one and half times greater than that of its Mother country, Britain ... For the first time since the first world war, its income per head surpassed Americff s. … … … Perhaps it's too new, or too incredible— Mr Hartcher argued— for Australians to absorb, but the country has now become so successful as a prosperous modern power that it can afford to take a little credit for winning the real prizes of international life. In its annual ranking of countries on earth, the United Nations combines measures of income, education, and health to create the Human Development Index, Mr Hartcher explained. He noted: In its 2010 assessment of 194 countries, Australia scored second only to Norway in enjoying the best living conditions available to the human species. A second opinion, as explained by Mr Reacher, is offered by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in its Better Life Index, which measures the economies of the worlds 34 developed countries. Again, Australia is at the top. This was not simply accomplished, I explained to my Italian interlocutors, by digging gold and other resources out of the ground. In fact, the mining industry constitutes only 8 per cent of the Australian economy. But perhaps I am proudest of the explanation that Mr Hartcher developed in his article and in his book that one of the distinctive characteristics of the Australian model was that we have achieved all of this—sound growth, high living standards and the protection of the social security net—while living within our means. Mr Hartcher asks: But surely Australia is now so dependent on mining that it must owe everything to the commodities boom? He answers that question very dearly: … even at the peak of the boom, Australia's entire energy and mining sectors together constituted only 8.4 per cent of the national economy in 2010. Peter Hartcher goes on to say: Australia's accomplishment is far greater than generating wealth and services for an elite. The rich can live well in any country. That is no achievement. The wider picture is that Australia is one of the world's fairest countries, one of the most tolerant, and one of the safest. … … … Against the tide of events elsewhere in the world, Australian income inequality has become less unequal. The rich have got richer, but the poor have not got poorer, and the gap between them has actually narrowed. This really impressed my interlocutors in Italy. Mr Hartcher continues: So Australia has managed to become one of the richest countries in its financial wealth, perhaps the richest of all in its living conditions, and also rich in its spirit of fairness and cohesion. At the end of my remarks, summarising these findings of Mr Hartcher based on hard evidence from the OECD and the United Nations, my friend the deputy of the Independent Republican Party, Mr Giorgio La Malfa, sprang to his feet, banged the table and denounced the chairman of the Italian Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Stefano Stefani. I was a little taken aback until the next sentence came. Mr La Malfa said, 'How can you invite this man to speak to our committee to outline the great economic progress Australia has made compared to Italy? It is a shame and makes Italians feel ashamed.' I do not have Mr La Malfa's pessimism about Italy. It is a great country, it is a centre of culture and of course it will emerge from the European economic crisis. But we have a great deal to be confident about in our great country, and the cries of horror orchestrated by the Leader of the Opposition with his $70 billion black hole nonbudget and his constant decrying of Australia's borrowing overseas—six per cent of GDP compared to Japan, 100 per cent, and other places much more—are really a disgrace. Australia is a confident, exciting and vital country. (Time expired)