Labor says yes to a year of achievement
Mark Dreyfus posted Friday, 27 January 2012
As published at The Age
On ABC Radio National last month, journalist Geraldine Doogue suggested that ''by any measure, as the year draws to an end, Australia has reason to feel pleased with itself''. She said that on many of the indices of well being – unemployment rate, average income, education, health – we are near or at the top of the pile, yet, we remain ''timid and inward looking''. So, as she put to her panel of commentators, ''is Australia hiding its light under a bushel?''.
These are interesting observations, and a good starting point for reflecting on the political year that was. In a year in which Australia won praise on the international stage for our management of the economy and our action to tackle climate change, we've been under attack here at home, as Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has travelled the nation seeking to talk Australia down.
It was the year in which Australia's Treasurer, Wayne Swan, was named the world's best finance minister for 2011, recognition for his stewardship of Australia's finances and economic performance during and since the global financial crisis.
It was the year in which the OECD named Australia as the most pleasant rich country in which to live, and a piece by Australian political journalist Peter Hartcher in the UK's Spectator magazine described our economy as ''the envy of the world'', and observed ''for so many different reasons Australia is the most successful country on earth''.
Political debate rightly focuses on the problems in our society. A key purpose of government is after all to deal with those problems. But we should not allow the focus on problems to obscure Australia's success in many areas. Doogue is right: at the end of 2011 we have reason to be pleased with ourselves as a nation.
Take some prominent examples. Our economy is strong, we have very low levels of public debt (less than a tenth of the level across the major advanced economies), low unemployment (around half the level of the US), and a massive pipeline of investments, particularly in resources.
In the worst global recession since the Great Depression, Australia's economy came through stronger than any developed country, and – unlike other developed economies where people were losing jobs in the millions – in Australia we were actually creating jobs, 750,000 of them since the Labor government was first elected.
And jobs and growth has been the Gillard government's focus, delivering a national broadband network to ensure all Australia's businesses are competitive, introducing a mining tax so that all Australians can benefit from the mining boom, increasing superannuation and investing in a new renewable energy industry that will create thousands of jobs for Australian workers.
In my own portfolio of climate change, the Parliament passed the government's Clean Energy Future package – an historic reform that delivers for Australia a price on carbon and a comprehensive plan to reduce pollution and invest in the clean energy technologies of the future. And congratulations for this have come from around the world For example, Conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron wrote to the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, earlier this year to congratulate her on the policy, which he said ''will add momentum to those, both in the developed and developing world, who are serious in dealing with this urgent threat''.
Not only we do finish 2011 as a modern prosperous power, but we have a vision for future growth, and the policies to get us there.
But the other prominent political dynamic of this past year has been the droning chants from Opposition Leader Tony Abbott of ''no, no, no''.
Early in 2010, Mr Abbott made his strategy known, saying on 2GB radio, ''if in doubt, our job is to oppose''. And that he has.
In 2011, Mr Abbott has said ''no'' to the mining tax, and sharing the benefits of the mining boom, ''no'' to compulsory superannuation, ''no'' to pricing carbon, ''no'' to tackling global warming, ''no'' to the income tax cuts, ''no'' to health reform, ''no'' to GP super clinics, ''no'' to Medicare Locals, ''no'' to fast, affordable broadband for all Australians, ''no'' to the $5.8 billion flood levy to help Queensland and Victoria rebuild.
Mr Abbott said ''no'' in principle to foreign aid, ''no'' to Trade Training Centres and to apprenticeship training programs, ''no'' to computers in schools, ''no'' to Labor's paid parental leave plan (which, since starting last year, has delivered benefits to more than 100,000 families), ''no'' to the stimulus payments that helped keep our economy out of recession through the GFC, ''no'' to proper public scrutiny of election costings, and ''no'' to his own finance spokesman's costings.
He's suggested regional towns could be ''wiped off the map'', and made wild claims about job losses and business failures.
Repeatedly he has been proved wrong, but the scare campaigning has continued. We need to fight against allowing political fear campaigns to dim the light of our achievements.
Geraldine Doogue suggested in her radio story that Australia was ''timid and inward looking''. I don't agree. I think Australia in the 21st century is confident and creative. We have the capacity to think even bigger and achieve even more, in 2012 and beyond.