Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

There was once a politician who campaigned across the country on cost-of-living issues. He went to every corner of this nation campaigning on cost-of-living issues. He said to the Australian people that they want a grown-up adult government that has thought things through, that has a clear plan to protect people's job security and a clear plan to reduce people's costs of living. We all know who that politician was. He holds high office in Australia now—he is the Prime Minister of Australia. He had a clear plan all right—it just was not clear to the Australian people, because he did not tell the Australian people about it. He had a clear plan—he had planned it all through—but he was not prepared to be clear with the Australian people about his plan. He campaigned right across the country on the costs of living for motorists.

He said that in one of those New-Age moments for housewives doing the ironing across the country, showing he was in touch. He showed the Australian people he cared about the costs of living. He just did not tell them that he planned to increase their costs of living. He planned to increase their costs of living by increasing petrol tax. He planned to increase their costs of living by reducing the age pension. He planned to increase their costs of living by throwing young people off Newstart. He planned to increase their costs of living by increasing debt on tertiary education.

He planned to increase their costs of living by attacking their costs of living. That is what this Prime Minister planned. He had a clear plan all right; he just was not very clear about it when he was campaigning for high office. He ran the most fundamentally dishonest election campaign in Australian history—an election campaign totally revolving around cost-of-living issues. He promised to reduce the costs of living. All he has done since with every policy he has implemented is increase the costs of living of the Australian people.

He says there is a modest increase in the petrol tax. He says it is small. It raises $2.2 billion. That is not modest. I am the first to acknowledge that that will have a very significant impact on the federal budget but will have a bigger impact on the budget of Australian families. As these Australian motoring groups have pointed out, by 2016-17 the average Australian motorist can expect to pay $142 a year extra because of this government's tax changes.

He campaigned against the carbon price but he did not tell the Australian people he was going to replace it with an increase in the petrol tax. He went off to the United States and told President Obama: 'I'm good on climate change. I've got a carbon tax on steroids.' This is what he was talking about. He was talking about his increase in the petrol tax. He did not say: 'By the way, that carbon price had compensation for low- and middle-income earners. That was a well thought through package.' That said to people on low and middle incomes, 'We are going to help you as we transition to a low-carbon economy.'

Is there a compensation package for the petrol tax increase? I do not think so. There is no compensation package for low- and middle-income earners. It is okay to increase tax without a compensation package but it is a terrible thing to introduce a carbon price with a compensation package! That is the warped and twisted logic we see from this Prime Minister and this Treasurer. This sort of warped and twisted logic saw the Prime Minister last night at a function in Sydney, which I attended together with the leader of the Labor Party in the Senate and the member for Brand, say to the Labor Party: 'Join Team Australia. You have got to be on Team Australia. The way you get on Team Australia is to support our unfair policies.' What sort of warped and twisted logic is that?

It is the same sort of warped and twisted logic that we saw from the Treasurer at the dispatch box when he split the Australian people into 'lifters' and 'leaners'. That is not Team Australia. Team Australia is one team; it is not 'lifters' and 'leaners'. It was an insult to those Australians who commit no crime but to work hard and who need a bit of support.

When the Treasurer said that, I thought it was just showing that he was not in touch with the aspirations and hopes of the Australian people. I thought at least he has come up with an original thought. I have to say, I was wrong because the Treasurer was not even original. He had modified it a little bit but the idea came from elsewhere. There is an organisation in the United States that some members may have heard of; it is called the Tea Party. It has some pretty extreme views and it has adherents to its views who make statements about Americans. There was a high-ranking US politician who categorised the American people. He was a favourite son of the Tea Party and was the Republican candidate in the recent presidential election for Vice President. He said in America there are 'makers' and there are 'takers'. 'Leaners' and 'lifters', 'makers' and 'takers' sounds familiar—it was straight out of the Tea Party copybook.

I gave Mr Ryan credit because he said he made that statement. Admittedly even he was not original. It came from Fox News originally in the United States. But somebody came up to Mr Ryan and said: 'I do not like that "makers-and-takers" categorisation. I think that is pretty offensive to Americans who need a bit of a hand. Are you saying my mother, who is a pensioner, is a "taker" not a "maker" after she has worked hard all her life?' Do you know what Mr Ryan said? Mr Ryan said: 'You are right. I should not have said that. I was wrong. It was insulting and it was offensive. I was wrong to categorise Americans like that. I withdraw those comments.'

Mr Ryan got the insult that he had applied to the American people. Do we see any such grace from this government? Do we see any such acknowledgement from this Treasurer? This Treasurer insulted the Australian people by categorising them into lifters and leaners. He insulted the Australian people when delivering the federal budget. Does he acknowledge his error? No. He says to the Australian people, 'If you are poor, do not worry; you do not have a car. You did not drive so do not worry about the increase in the petrol tax.' He withdrew that for a couple of days and then withdrew the withdrawal, so out of touch is he with the aspirations of the Australian people.

But the most insulting thing of all is not the Treasurer's words but his deeds and his actions. His words are insulting enough but his deeds and his actions are the most insulting. This Treasurer, who was the sidekick of the now Prime Minister, went around Australia campaigning against the carbon price on his deep principles which had been informed by a Twitter question some time before—when he had asked Twitter for advice on what to do about carbon pricing. As the Treasurer has famously been known to say, 'I have got principles and if you do not like them, I have got plenty of others as well.' He is good at plagiarism is our Treasurer. He went around the country campaigning against the carbon price and cost-of-living issues.

The Treasurer is the same Treasurer who came into this parliament and stood at the dispatch box and brought down a divisive budget, an unfair budget and budget fundamentally bad for our economy because he is fundamentally out of touch with the Australian people. We have had a few Treasurers out of touch in this nation and this Treasurer takes the cake. He makes Peter Costello look like he was a touchy-feely in-touch type of guy. This Treasurer has such arrogance that he lectures the Australian people on how they should work longer than anybody else in the world, until they are 70.

Mr Joyce interjecting—

I will check Hansard and see what you said later, Barnaby; you just be quiet. He tells the Australian people that they have to work longer than anybody else in the entire world as he sits in his office bringing down this budget, which has fundamentally divided the Australian people and insulted those Australian people who work hard but who are not of means.

This is a Treasurer who is fundamentally driven by prejudice in a government fundamentally driven by prejudice. As I said before, if this was a budget and a government driven by ideology, I would fundamentally disagree with them. If it was a coherent well-thought-out ideology, I would have my problems with it. I would disagree with it but I would have some respect for it. I have no respect for prejudice. No member on this side has any respect for prejudice. Whether it be racial prejudice or whether it be prejudice against ordinary working people, we will not abide prejudice. We will not abide a Treasurer who divides his country into lifters and leaners. We will not abide a Prime Minister and a Treasurer who say one thing before an election campaign, who run a fundamentally dishonest and deceitful election campaign and who then come into office and say, 'Let's have a mature conversation.'

I will tell you what are mature conversation is code for: a mature conversation is code for 'ignore my deceit'. With this Prime Minister a mature conversation is code for: 'Ignore my deception of the Australian people. I know I deceived do you, I know I have engaged in a fundamentally misleading election campaign but now I want to have a mature conversation.' I will tell you how to start a mature conversation: you start by admitting that you lied to the Australian people in the election.

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