Page 1726 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 15 May 2019
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MR PETTERSSON: The Liberals squandered the mining boom, to the benefit of their corporate mates. They cut wages to those who can least afford it.
Mr Coe interjecting—
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Mr Coe!
MR PETTERSSON: They give out corporate tax cuts to corporations who already do not pay their fair share. They stifle wage growth through criminalising unions. They privatise anything that is not nailed down. They slash the public sector and services, and after all of that they subsidise those with multiple properties who want to buy more properties. Then they have the gall to say they are the best party to run the economy and to help Canberrans own a home. Rather, the Liberals are rabid ideologues obsessed with the debunked idea of trickle-down economics.
This motion put by the Leader of the Opposition links the importance of strong economic management to the ACT housing market, and there is so much truth to that link. As an aside, absent from Mr Coe’s list of challenges to the ACT property sector is the threat of a federal Liberal government cutting jobs and relocating more public servants from Canberra with their decentralisation agenda. I also note that Mr Coe states that negative gearing is a risk, although paradoxically the price of land is also a challenge. I would take their concerns far more seriously if those opposite were not mostly speculative property investors contributing to locking young people out of the property market.
It takes some mental gymnastics to understand Mr Coe’s point here. He says land prices and rent are too high, which is bad, but he also says federal Labor’s policies which will bring down prices are bad. I am not too sure what Mr Coe is advocating for here. The one thing that is very clear is that he wants the government to continue to subsidise speculative property investors to buy their sixth home rather than help first home buyers afford their first.
Fundamentally the Liberals just do not understand how the economy works. In one of then Prime Minister Abbott’s many gaffes, he attempted to explain the economy to the housewives of Australia. As well as insulting most Australian women, he showed his very poor understanding of how the economy of the country actually works by comparing it to a household budget. It is a bit more complicated than a household budget.
An economy is more than just business. Other stakeholders are as important too—workers, households, government at all levels, small businesses, non-profit institutions, NGOs and the voluntary sector all contribute to what our economy is. So just being business friendly is no guarantee that the real economy, measured by employment, output and incomes, will automatically improve.
The correlation between big business friendly policies and a strong economy is a lie spread by the far right-wing media and the IPA. In reality, economic progress is measured by high employment, rising living standards, increasing wages, stability,
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