Page 759 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 24 March 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
The Australian people, particularly the people in Canberra, know that unemployment cannot be solved easily. They know that the problem is structural and that it requires a cooperative effort from all parts of Australian society. They know that it cannot be solved by the ritualistic moanings of the Liberals. They know that the same people would have turned around, had they won the election a fortnight ago, and again labelled the unemployed as dole bludgers, as they have so often before. It is simply a total waste of time for the Liberals to lecture the Follett Government on unemployment. That is what you do. The Government is working with Federal Labor in the only way which can achieve success. It is working with the business community in the only way that can bring success. It is working with the unionised and the unemployed in the only way that can bring success.
It is a long road of hard, detailed work - a concept totally alien to the Maynard G. Krebs of the Opposition. It involves the difficult and painstaking task of restructuring the economy against the backdrop of the worldwide impact of tech change that we have gone through. In order to meet the challenge posed by this new world economy, Labor, in the last decade, undertook two things which, on the face of it, have contributed significantly to the high levels of unemployment. Let us look at them. These were banking deregulation and industry restructuring. They were two issues which I believe can be identified as reasons why Australia's unemployment rates in 1993 are as high as they are.
Mr Humphries: But that was your initiative.
MR LAMONT: Yes, without question.
Mr Humphries: That was your initiative. You did it.
MR LAMONT: Without question. I think the Labor Party has to stand up and accept that. That was not hidden from the Australian people over the full period of the recent Federal election campaign.
Mr Cornwell: Rubbish!
MR LAMONT: It certainly was not.
Mr Cornwell: You never admitted it.
Mr Humphries: You did not admit it at all.
MR LAMONT: Yes, we did. I will say it here again this afternoon. Let us have a look at the proposals contained in the "frightpack". The "frightpack" would have dramatically increased unemployment by accelerating changes in these two areas beyond the capacity of the economy to cope or recover. In the ACT your policy for increasing employment was to sack 3,000 public servants and to abandon the York Park project. As Ralph Willis said, sacking people might be a good way to increase solidarity between the unemployed and the employed, but as a way of keeping unemployment down it is totally ridiculous.
Let me give you a bit of advice. You should not only trash the GST, and thrash it if you cannot trash it; you should not only give up trying to wreck Medicare for the benefit of some vested interests; you should not only stop trying to change the tax system for the sake of achieving windfalls for some of your millionaire mates;
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .