Dr EMERSON (3:26 PM) —Through its economic mismanagement, the Howard government has addicted Australia to debt. The Howard government's economic mismanagement has set six shameful records for Australia: record foreign debt, a record current account deficit, a record trade deficit, a record household debt level, record credit card debt and, today, record low household savings which in fact have gone negative. Foreign debt has reached $354 billion, almost double the figure when the Treasurer in opposition rolled out his famous debt truck. We are now looking everywhere for that debt truck, and we will find it. We will find the debt truck: the debt truck can park, but it cannot hide. The Treasurer wants us to believe that Labor debt is bad debt but Liberal debt is good debt. After he launched his debt truck he told the parliament:

Tories speak like this—`one need', `one's mind'—

That is, he said that net debt had reached $180 billion. He said:

He described foreign debt as a `monkey on the back of the Australian economy', and he continued:

Foreign debt has now gone to $354 billion. It has almost doubled. The record foreign debt is being fed by a record current account deficit which in turn is being fed by a record trade deficit. The current account deficit has been revealed today in the national accounts figures as hitting 6.2 per cent of gross domestic product. That is a very alarming level by anyone's standards. The trade deficit that is feeding the current account deficit that is feeding into the debt is now the 14th trade deficit in succession. For 14 months in a row we have had a trade deficit. The government says, `That's not our fault.' It is blaming the drought, but the drought cannot be and is not responsible for a trade deficit going back 14 months.

Australia must be experiencing its first ever retrospective drought, because the government would have you believe that the drought was affecting exports from this country 14 months ago. The drought only started to affect rural exports in the last few months, not 14 months ago. I do not recall the government talking about good seasonal conditions when there were trade surpluses. It took all the credit. It said, `This is a golden age of productivity growth. This is a golden age for Australia, as we have these trade surpluses.' But, when we get 14 successive trade deficits, the government says, `It is not our fault; it is the drought.'

Then they say the slowdown in world trade, in economic conditions, is responsible for the trade deficit. Australia's exports are now going through their worst slump in 50 years. But when we look at this argument, that it is a slowdown in global economic conditions, have a look at the dominant market for Australian exports—that is, East Asia. Last year East Asia grew by nearly seven per cent. That is very strong growth, but our exports to East Asia fell by five per cent last year. The truth is that our exports to East Asia have taken a hammering from the government's provocative language about being deputy sheriff to the United States in the region. That language and that sentiment are still alive and well in the government's recently released white paper on foreign affairs and trade. The government identifies its role for Australia in the region as `managing US-China relations'. So the deputy sheriff sentiment is alive and well in this government and it is not helped at all when the Prime Minister talks about pre-emptive strikes against possible terrorist attacks from East Asian trading partners.

The Minister for Trade, who is here for the debate, has welcomed Australia's record trade deficit as a sign of investor confidence. In fact, when we had a record deficit of $3 billion in December, he said:

He must be the only minister in Australia's history who welcomes trade deficits. I suppose that if the trade deficit were to double that would indicate a doubling of investor confidence in the Australian economy. He is like the character from The Life of Brian, the affable fool who goes around singing at the end, hanging off the crucifix:

That is our trade minister. He is hanging from the crucifix, always looking on the bright side of life—when we have a trade deficit of $3 billion, a record current account deficit that has just hit 6.2 per cent of GDP and foreign debt of $354 billion. He is always looking on the bright side of life. Instead, he should come into this parliament and use the opportunity today to apologise to the parliament. He should take the Prime Minister's advice. When in opposition, John Howard said:

Well, we have just recorded the worst trade deficit in the history of the nation.

Mr Zahra —Apologise!

Dr EMERSON —Instead of an apology we have got him hanging from the crucifix saying, `Always look on the bright side of life.' Here is your opportunity, minister. You can use this opportunity to apologise to the people of Australia through this parliament for the worst ever trade deficit. But I suspect he will not.

Because the government has addicted Australia to debt, it is giving away Australia's economic sovereignty. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer were red hot about this when they were in opposition. The Prime Minister said:

That was John Howard when he was the opposition leader and when debt was $180 billion. He has almost doubled it to $354 billion. So if anyone has given away this country to the foreign bankers of the world, if anyone has traded in this country's economic sovereignty, it is the Prime Minister of Australia. He should take his own advice and come into the parliament today and apologise, not delegate it to this hapless trade minister.

But, of course, when the Treasurer was in opposition he was in on the act. When the current account deficit was at $26 billion—it is now $33 billion—he said:

I wonder where he got that phrase? Probably from his consultant adviser—

Well, he has forecast disaster and he has made it—$33 billion is a lot more than the $26 billion that he said was a terrible disaster.

Mr Zahra —That is a woeful effort.

Dr EMERSON —By his own favoured measure, he said that, under Labor, foreign debt was $10,000 per person. What is it now, by the Treasurer's favoured measure? It is $18,000 per person. So this government has mortgaged the country's future. There are no two ways of looking at it: it has addicted Australia to debt. It has almost doubled foreign debt, it has more than doubled household debt and it has trebled credit card debt. This is all part of its shameful six records.

Mr Zahra —It is an epidemic.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Hon. I.R. Causley)—The member for McMillan has already been warned. He is on thin ice.

Dr EMERSON —Australians are spending but they are not saving. The household savings ratio today went negative—Australians are dissaving. The Leader of the Opposition pointed out in question time today what the Prime Minister had to say about this savings ratio, that it indicated that Australians were struggling to make ends meet. Now, for the first time in this nation's history, Australians' saving has gone negative. Household debt is now a staggering 129 per cent of household income. Household debt is much bigger than household income under this government. This government has mortgaged the nation's future. Australians cannot afford to save. They cannot afford to save when they face the high cost of health care in this country, the decline in bulk-billing and very expensive medical costs. They cannot afford to save when they face the high cost of education. And they cannot afford to save when they are confronted with the highest taxing government in Australia's history: the Howard-Costello government.

Australian families are living off the credit card and as a consequence Australia is living off the credit card. Australia's credit card shows $354 billion of debt. This government is discouraging savings. One of the great reforms of the Hawke-Keating era that we celebrate today is superannuation for the many, not just for the few. Labor boosted national savings but the Liberals have always believed in superannuation for the privileged few and not for the many. Though they voted against Labor's superannuation guarantee in 1992, Labor's plan got up against the opposition of the Liberals. But one of the first acts of the Howard-Costello government, to their eternal shame, was to cancel Labor's co-contribution to superannuation. So we are now back to superannuation for the few, not for the many. That is their philosophy. They have brought into this parliament a bill to provide extra superannuation tax concessions for millionaire couples. Not only that, they want foreign company executives to enjoy foreign income, tax free. And they will not act against the obscene salary packages of company executives that we have heard about here in the parliament today and yesterday, but they want to make share option plans tax deductible. Why? Because they want to give Australian taxpayers `an opportunity to contribute'. That is the new term for a tax from the Liberals: `an opportunity to contribute' to the bloated share packages of executives, including foreign company executives. This government is not acting in Australia's national interest; it is acting in the interests of foreigners and it is acting in the interests of the privileged few. It is failing to invest in Australia's future.

Today's productivity growth is tomorrow's jobs and tomorrow's living standards. But productivity is actually falling. Tucked away in this white paper on Australia's foreign and trade policy called Advancing the national interest—what rubbish—at page 135 there is a little-noticed graph which shows that for the first time in many years Australian productivity is no longer growing but falling. That is because this government is failing to invest in the nation's future. It cut the Export Market Development Grants Scheme. It cut the R&D tax concession. It has starved the universities of funding. It is squandering the benefits of Labor's economic and social reforms that led to this surge in productivity, this yield from productivity in future incomes and future jobs. At the very time that it is squandering the economic record of the previous Labor government, it is tearing away at the social wage, it is tearing away at Medicare, it is tearing away at public education and it is tearing away at superannuation.

This government is taking Australia down the low road. It is taking us down the road of low skills and low wages. Do you know that in the last three years only 700 middle-income jobs have been created but 462,000 low-income jobs have been created? Down the low road we go with this government. On the 20th anniversary of the commencement of the Hawke government, I stand tall and proud of its economic and social reforms. We celebrate those reforms today. This government should be ashamed of its legacy of debt after seven years—its sick, shameful record of debt. I stand here proud to be a member of the Australian Labor Party, which in government will take the high road to high skills, to high wages, to high-quality work and to a decent standard of living for all Australians and not just the privileged few. I stand here proud to be a member of the Australian Labor Party, which in government will build a modern nation, a just nation. The Australian Labor Party will bring Australians together in a triumph of hope over fear, will give all young people the opportunity of a decent education and will give all Australians an economic future and affordable health care. It will be a nation that regains its future, which has been so miserably mortgaged by the economic mismanagement of this miserable, divisive government. (Time expired)