Senator EGGLESTON (3:17 PM) —I think it is quite courageous of Senator Conroy to get up and criticise the economic management of the Howard government, given the dismal record of the Labor Party in the 13 years that it was in office. Senator Conroy, economic management is not something that I think any Labor Party politician should dare talk about. The Labor Party during its years in office, if one compares it with the coalition government, fails on almost every criterion. I think interest rates under the Labor government hit a high of 21 per cent around the end of the 1980s. Under the coalition, they sit at around six per cent. Inflation rates under Labor were very high indeed compared with inflation rates around the rest of the world. Under the Howard government's economic management, inflation sits at two per cent or three per cent in Australia, which is the lowest rate heard of—

Senator George Campbell —Or four, or five, or six, or seven.

Senator EGGLESTON —Seven per cent, Senator Campbell, is something that you would remember well, because that is the sort of low inflation rate that the Labor Party had hoped they might achieve one day but never got anywhere near. Under the Labor government, inflation was high and money was worth nothing. If you waited a week, your savings were eroded by inflation. Under the Howard government, under the coalition's economic management policies, inflation rates have been very low.

When Labor left office, the Commonwealth had a debt of $96 billion. That is something that I think Labor must feel very ashamed of to this very day. Under the coalition government, more than $50 billion of that debt has been paid off, because we have had no less than five consecutive budget surpluses. Under Labor—guess what?—most of the budgets were in great deficit. Senator Conroy said recently in his famous Zimmerman performance that he saw nothing intrinsically wrong with deficit budgeting. In other words, he saw nothing intrinsically wrong in going back to the great deficits which characterised the Hawke and Keating Labor governments and which led Australia down the pathway of record national debts, record interest rates, record inflation, record high unemployment rates and generally very poor economic management.

Let us look at unemployment rates. The unemployment rate under the last ALP government hit nearly 11 per cent. Senator Campbell, that is something that you in particular must be have been very embarrassed about. There you were, along with your colleagues—leaders of the trade union movement—and your government had unemployment rates at 11 per cent. What are the rates now? They are right down to six and seven per cent—in fact, 6.9 per cent. The coalition government has created something like 800,000 new jobs. Under the Labor administration, jobs were being lost day by day, week by week, year by year, because the economy was failing under your leadership.

What about real wages? Under Labor, real wages fell. Under the coalition, they have grown by five per cent, which is something I am sure Senator Campbell would applaud, because his trade unionists are better off under the coalition government. Senator Conroy talked about the GST being a failure. Let us face the facts: the GST was supported by Hawke and Keating, but they were just not brave enough to introduce it. Everybody has known and understood for a very long time that this country had to go from a direct to an indirect taxation model, and the Howard government were brave enough to introduce it. They need to be applauded for that great initiative. They were brave enough to go to the people with a proposal to reform the tax system. They were returned on that basis, and they have carried out that reform. (Time expired)