Page 1228 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 30 May 2007
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MR MULCAHY (Molonglo) (5.05): I will make some further comments on this matter. I have done some very quick research in relation to the matters that Mr Barr raised, and I am told that in fact he does not have the correct figures. He has failed to take into account commonwealth collections in relation to revenue associated with alcohol, tobacco and fuel that, as a result of, I think, the 1996 X-rated video High Court case, reverts to the states. This accounts for another 0.7 to one per cent of GDP. Moreover, the total amount to the states has not changed from the long-running average.
I am sure Mr Barr will be pleased to know that under Hawke and Keating this dropped to about four per cent and that payments to the states since GST have averaged around 6.8 per cent of GDP, with a long-running average over a 20-year period at around 6.5 per cent. So back to school for the economic rationalist. Hopefully he will get this right. I will undertake, though, to get a more detailed analysis of those comments from Macquarie Bank. I will be happy to share those with the minister because I think he will find that his figures are off the mark.
I would like to go back to some of the remarks that were made earlier in the debate. Although I am always flabbergasted by the Greens’ perspective on economic matters, they cause me no end of enjoyment. What I have discovered today from Dr Foskey’s remarks is that, despite the statistics, we really have high unemployment. Where she is getting this information from—she must be using a crystal ball—is beyond me but apparently we have high levels of unemployment. The ABS is wrong, the Chief Minister is wrong in saying that he thought things were going pretty well, and the Howard government is wrong. In fact, according to the figures I have seen, the unemployment level is the lowest since 1974. But apparently, according to the Greens’ perspective, there is a massive problem of unemployment.
We are told that we do not have a skills shortage. I have not met anybody in business in Australia who has not told me that they cannot get people to fill jobs. They are desperate. You can walk onto a building site in Canberra and, without a single qualification at the age of 18, get $1,000 a week. Because it suits her line, Dr Foskey would have this Assembly believe that there is really high unemployment. But she cannot get up and praise the fact that what the commonwealth government has done has benefited all Australians; that it has helped reduce the tax burden on families, made this country more prosperous, made us one of the strongest economies in the world, created buoyant conditions in Western Australia and strengthened the investment that people have in their family home. Apparently it is all a disaster.
We were told by the Greens that you cannot have an economy without an environment, but the truth is you cannot protect the environment without a strong economy. Developing countries have the most pollution precisely because they do not have the resources to invest in environmental projects, and it is because of our economic strength that Australia is taking a leading role in the region to address environmental issues. For example, the Australian government in March announced that it had committed $200 million to kick-start a world-leading initiative to significantly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Was there praise from the Greens, who claim to have an interest in this? No. All we had were churlish remarks from the senator on the hill. This money will help support new forest planting, limit
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