Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is a government built on contradictions, wandering around in its own parallel universe. You can see how it actually believes its rhetoric. You can see the contradictions on education. It was for Gonski and then it was against Gonski; it was for going back to the old SES model. And then, by the end of the week, it was back to Gonski. And, on boats, the same thing.

One minute they are voting with the Greens in this House on the Malaysian transfer agreement. We had the Treasurer blubbering away at the dispatch box and, next minute, they are in here holding up pictures of Christine Milne, Leader of the Greens in the other place. On foreign investment, they say they are open for business and then, on their first major test of foreign investment, who gets to make the decision? The member for New England. The most incoherent member of the cabinet gets to make the decision! And people in boardrooms around Australia gasped—you could actually hear the breath intake of corporate Australia. Sydney just about shut down, surprised that jobs and investment in this country could be decided by the member for New England. No-one could quite believe it. And of course we have the same inherent contradiction on debt. They denied the GFC in opposition, but the justification for this debt increase is 'headwinds out of Europe'. That contradiction does not actually makes sense.

When they were in opposition we had a budget emergency—'budget emergency', it sounds very serious—and yet in government suddenly the emergency is not quite so emergent. I do not know what the word is, but it is the opposite to emergency. We had the austerity talk when they were in opposition, but that evaporated as well with this mismatch of policy. We know there are going to be cuts and nasty ones, but you can bet they will not be to the top end of town because they have given them a tax cut. One of their first acts was to give the top end of town a tax cut on their superannuation.

In opposition they decried the Greens. Even when they were voting with the Greens on the Malaysian transfer agreement, you would never have known it for their rhetoric. Yet, at this very moment, there is the Treasurer sandwiched between the member for New England and the member for Melbourne—two ends of a political horseshoe. Fortunately, he is big enough to fill that space, but it is an amazing position for a Treasurer to be in.

They told us before the election that they were going to repay the debt. How many times did we see that in direct mails around the country? 'Repay the debt. Repay the debt. Repay the debt.' If you could get them in a debate, they were not very good at telling you much beyond that. You were very good at saying it; you were not very good at actually having a debate about it.

But now, in the first sittings of this parliament, what do we have? An increase to half a trillion dollars in the debt limit. That is their first ambit claim and they are negotiating it. The member for Melbourne is not here. He is probably in Joe's office having very serious discussions or in Barnaby's office—the member for New England. They are probably talking about jobs and investment—probably not! What they are talking about is getting rid of the debt limit altogether. What we will have under this government is more debt. You can just see it coming. They are already starting to talk about good debt and bad debt. That means their debt will be good debt and our debt will be bad debt. That will be their philosophy. You can see it coming. What this Treasurer is doing, by getting into bed with the member for New England and the member for Melbourne, is jeopardising foreign investment, jeopardising jobs and pushing up our debt. This is a Treasurer that has all the characteristics of Ruth Park's muddle-headed wombat. That is what he is: a muddle-headed wombat, wandering around the place saying one thing and doing another.

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