Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As the member would acknowledge, the Howard government brought in more regulations than any government in the history of Australia. He is inherently saying that a government is good if it brings in regulations. So all the political pygmies opposite who have come in beating their chests and saying repeal day is a wonderful thing have somehow flipped? I can understand why the front bench has not changed. They are still set firmly in their ways from 1955 or 1956—whatever year it is that they have calibrated as being the perfect year. But the fresh blood of the 44th Parliament come in here and say, 'We turned up for work today and the people of Australia should be proud of us.' Even in the military, where they do give out medals for service, you have to be in the service for at least three years before you get that medal. But you have been here for one year, you are in your second year, and you are saying, 'This repeal day is our most magnificent achievement.'

We have heard valedictory speeches from both sides of the chamber about Wayne Goss—I just delivered mine up in the Federation Chamber—and Gough Whitlam and their incredible vision for Australia. And what does 'Rear Admiral Abbott' have to offer the people of Australia? Repeal day. 'Ladies and gentlemen, we've hunted down some commas. We've changed the words "electronic mail" to "email". Please give us an Order of Australia or some appropriate recognition. Bring back knight and dame honours'—because we have tracked down a comma or something! This shows the paucity of vision from the Liberal and National parties. Unbelievable! The sooner that front bench gets changed the better. Bring in some of the new blood—the people that actually have a bit of vision and a bit of hope for a future Australia—not the idiots that have swallowed this line that somehow we should not pay a little bit now rather than make future generations pay a lot more. That is fundamentally what has happened.

Maybe it is something to do with the people that came through the Howard government. They just have not seen beyond 2007 when the Howard government finished. They did not come to government as a group of adults with a vision. They set out their principles before the election; I will give them credit for that. I read their booklets and I heard their speeches about no taxes, no cuts to the pension and no cuts to education; I heard it so often I know it better than I knew my own campaign slogans. The reality after the election is that the only political currency which counts—trust—was broken time after time after time. We see it with the GP co-payment, which surely personifies red tape. They are going to have red tape on every visit to the doctor, with $2 in red tape for every sick person and $5 given to the never-never. And the way they have sold this! This morning the health minister, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Senate were all over the shop. It is like they have read William Custer's playbook about how to sell a policy to people. It is unbelievable!

But back to the legislation before us, the Treasury Legislation Amendment (Repeal Day) Bill 2014, which, as I said, I am calling the 'Turning up for Work Day Bill,' celebrated by those opposite, a government that on every single day they have been in office have brought in three or four regulations, even on the weekend! I am not making fun of them for doing that; that is what governments do. Regulations are not inherently bad. But for them to turn around and say: our greatest achievement—and the people of Australia should celebrate the fact—is that we hunted down a couple of commas and changed the word "electronic mail" to "email". It is unbelievable.

You can see the proper context for how that first repeal day should be treated. Some of the new people in the 44th Parliament were here, reading out their prepared lines about how wonderful it was that they had got rid of a couple of commas. But what happened to the legislation? We pay the people in Treasury $2.1 million a year to track down these stray commas. But what happened to it? Did they rush it over to the other place to ensure that it was turned into law? No. Nothing happened with it until almost the second repeal day. It is smoke and mirrors. The smoke should be blown away and the mirrors should be smashed to reveal that this is what governments do.

Governments look over legislation and most of these regulations are doing good things—for example, regulating aircraft safety—unless those opposite want to sign up to only flying planes that have not had regulations in terms of their safety signed off on; I do not want to do that—and are not hurting anyone. They are not an albatross around the neck of Australia. One particularly puerile comment from a member opposite was that it was a python squeezer, a cobra striker—I cannot remember which one—but the serpentine reference was completely deluded. This legislation is what governments do; they turn up and sort out things.

Labor is supporting this legislation; it is not particularly controversial. But the fake chest beating is controversial. I find it repugnant, hypocritical and hard to swallow, as do the people of Australia. However, schedule 1 in this bill amends the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act to repeal the payslip-reporting provisions. I heard the member for Ryan, my neighbour on the other side of the Brisbane River, say that this was a bad thing. I am not sure whether the member for Ryan has had the experience of a business going belly up or of a constituent coming in after thinking they had a superannuation payment going on for years and then finding out that the superannuation had not been paid and that the business was belly up. The modern equivalent of the GEERS scheme will not pay superannuation and, for people who are close to retirement, this can be heartbreaking.

I noted the contribution of the member for Reid where he, as a former employer of a business that employed many people in the pub industry, made the point about how important it is that your workers understand where their superannuation contribution is going and that it has been paid, because it can be particularly heartbreaking.

As I said, the Labor Party is supporting this legislation. When it comes to superannuation, I will stand on the Labor Party's record any day. We have done more to boost retirement savings of Australians than those opposite have ever done. They are fundamentally opposed to superannuation. They attack it whenever they can but, thankfully, after difficult implementation times under the Hawke and Keating governments, Australians now accept that superannuation is a part of life. Accumulation schemes have obviously brought in an incredible amount of superannuation, with approximately $1.3 billion now being managed. It will continue to increase. Incidentally, because of that, we can now look to providing those funds management services in Asia. As the middle class emerges, the skills that Australians have when it comes to managing money can now be retailed and taken over to other countries. That is something that we do particularly well. That is a part of the Asian focus that we need to have in selling our services and engaging with the emerging markets of India, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and the like. Obviously, despite the snickering from those opposite when that was announced as an election policy back in 2006-07, we have managed to do that and will continue to do so.

The amendments in this legislation are not particularly troubling. As I said, the Labor Party will be supporting it. But I do take issue, as I said, with this repeal day stunt and all the government's grandiose claims about the deregulation agenda. Unless you look at what the regulations do, you cannot make those sweeping statements. In fact, time and time again, the government has been saved by the opposition in the House of Representatives and by other people in the Senate from themselves. They are so focused on talking about bonfires, slashing red tape and all that emotive language that they have not done the real hard yards. It is a typical conservative government, which, in terms of economic reform, are not prepared to do the hard yards and to make significant changes. When it comes to managing the economy, it is up to Labor to do the hard yards. The government now moan about the AAA credit rating given to the Australian economy by the three ratings agencies, something never achieved by those opposite. These are not left-wing agencies; these are the ratings agencies of the world.

I note the Treasurer has particular challenges, but I am waiting for him to come in and apologise to the House after hearing him, year after year, talking about how economic challenges were irrelevant. He never acknowledged the global financial crisis and the challenges that it brought to the people of Australia. He never acknowledged what it would be like to have 200,000 people out of work and the havoc that that wreaks upon communities and individuals—the tears in school playgrounds, the suicides and the heartache associated with unemployment when it hits particular communities. No. I am yet to hear the Treasurer come in and actually acknowledge some of those challenges. Well, now, as revenue starts to collapse for this government—as iron ore goes below US$70, with the challenges that will bring, and as coal comes off the high prices that it was at during the 40th and 41st parliaments, when John Howard and Peter Costello just watched the money trickle into the Treasury coffers—it will be interesting to see whether the Treasurer has the ticker it takes to lead this ship of state, the ticker it takes to lead a government and a nation during difficult times. And I can tell you this for free: having these cheap-stunt days will not fool anyone in the Australian community at all.

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