Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

It is extraordinary, isn’t it? We have seen the most amazing display of arrogance from this Treasurer—arrogance that we expect over and over again. He is doing it again here while he sits at the table—making silly noises like a silly little boy. Actually, Treasurer, what can happen in the workplace now is that if you smirk like you are smirking now you can actually get the sack. That is what happened to a constituent of mine recently. He got the sack for smirking in the workplace, like you have just smirked all the way through question time and through your response to this matter of public importance. All this Treasurer knows is how to smirk. One thing we have got to expect from this Treasurer is he knows how to smirk.

In his reply on this MPI the Treasurer asked us to describe what it was that he got wrong in the budget. Of course, he pointedly refused to go to the critical issue that Labor has raised, which is his failure to invest in the skills of this nation. That did not get a mention in his response in this matter of public importance debate, because this budget does absolutely nothing to invest in the skills of our nation. We know and the people of Australia know that this Treasurer has failed to invest in the young people of our country. He has refused to invest in the skills of our nation. He has refused to invest in building prosperity for our future.

He did not mention the word ‘education’ once in his 30-minute speech yesterday—not once. There was no mention of education. We have a budget that has a massive amount of extra spending—about $11 billion in this coming year alone. How much extra on apprenticeships? You might think that out of $11 billion, if you were serious, there would be something. The Treasurer wants to know what he got wrong. I will tell him what he got wrong: all they are spending extra is $40 million on apprenticeships. This is the area that the Reserve Bank of Australia says is the No. 1 capacity constraint on the Australian economy that is putting upward pressure on interest rates. What has this Treasurer done when it comes to addressing this No. 1 capacity constraint? He has done next to nothing—

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