Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Forty cents a week. The reason why we want to build this infrastructure is because there has been a very significant shift in the Australian economy. Mining and resources have helped to drive the strength of the Australian economy over the last decade. There is no doubt about that. That mining and resources activity, primarily in construction, is coming off in intensity and now we need to build up the other 90 per cent of the Australian economy that is not directly in mining and resources. That includes health and education and financial services, agricultural services, industry more generally, telecommunications and IT. We need to fill the infrastructure that is going to help to drive the remainder of the Australian economy, the great bulk of employment. Because, if we do not spend this money now on the infrastructure of the 21st century, unemployment will rise and our quality of life will deteriorate. The Labor Party does not get that, otherwise they would be dealing in reality rather than in the fantasy that somehow 'she'll be right'. 'She'll be right' is not a policy prescription for Australia's future. 'She'll be right' is not a policy for a political party. We have to earn our growth. We have to earn the jobs of the future. The only way to be able to do that is to pay along the way, to contribute along the way. That is the only way we are able to deal with the challenges—

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