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

In all the chaos and confusion of the last 48 hours, one thing is very, very clear: the government just does not get it. We see all the speculation, all the backgrounding, all the backstabbing about who wants what job. We see the positing of who will be the next Treasurer across the newspapers of Australia. We see all the backbiting against each other and all the blame shifting about whose fault the mess is. One thing is very clear: they do not understand the problem. All the speculation about staff members, about who said what to who, and who is on the outer in the Prime Minister's office—none of that matters if a government is going well. None of that matters if the Australian people have trust in their government. None of that matters if the bonds of trust have not been broken between a Prime Minister and the nation. And the fundamental problem with this government—that the government still just does not understand and get—is that those bonds of trust have been broken by the entire government with the Australian people.

They were broken in May by the Treasurer who brought down a budget with unfairness at its core. They were broken in May by the Treasurer who brought down a budget which— systemically, methodically, calmly—broke every election commitment they made. Can you imagine them going through the real solutions document saying, 'We missed one! We haven't broken that promise yet.' They are very methodical when it comes to breaking their election promises. They went through and ticked them off, one by one, and said, 'Now we have. Now we've broken every promise.'

That was the trust that was broken with the Australian people. They knew it. The Treasurer knew it. That is why the Treasurer prepared the table showing the impact, on Australian families, of the budget—just as they have done for every treasurer since Peter Costello—and they said, 'Here they are, Treasurer; here are the tables.' He said, 'Don't put them in the budget. That would be too open and transparent for my liking,' said the member for North Sydney, the Treasurer. 'We can't tell the Australian people the impact of our decision. Take them out of the budget.' The first Treasurer who did that, he knew the impact on the Australian people of their budget.

Has anything changed in the last 48 hours? Has anything changed in the last three hours? The Prime Minister apparently said the budget was too ambitious; too bold. So what elements have been dropped.? It is a very fair question. Has the GP tax been dropped? No. He told the party room, 'We might drop it,' but then we had a bit of cleaning up and a bit of speculation and, 'No, it's still government policy.' Has the decision not to put the submarines out to open tender been dropped? No. That is now very clear. He won a couple of extra votes from the South Australians by telling them he would—and then it did not. Nothing has changed.

Have the $100,000 degrees for Australians been dropped? Not on your life. They have not been dropped at all. What about the decision to take $80 a week away from Australia's pensioners over the next 10 years by cutting indexation? It has not been stopped. It is still their policy. The decision to make Australians work until they are 70—a longer working life than any other country in the world—has it been dropped? Not by this Prime Minister; not by this Treasurer.

The decision to create an underclass by removing the ability of young people to receive Newstart in Australia, the decision to deliberately, calmly and methodically create an underclass in Australia, by taking away the right to unemployment benefits when people fall on hard times—no it has not been dropped. The government just does not get it. They do not get it at its core. Their problem with the Australian people is not who is in what job, it is not the sales job—as bad as it has been for the Treasurer—it is the product. It is the product of his budget, it is the product of their dishonesty and is the product of their strategy, their collective strategy—agreed among all of them—to mislead the Australian people at the last election. We know it was agreed between all of them.

We saw the Prime Minister today reassert that none of the budget measures have been dropped. We saw the deputy leader of the Liberal Party say, 'This was a cabinet process.' Confirm it was a cabinet process. And we heard the Minister for Communications say, on 2GB, 'I support unreservedly and wholeheartedly every element in this budget, every single one.' That is his position now, that was his position then and that is his position as he circles the Prime Minister of Australia, waiting for the right time to strike.

The Minister for Finance belled the cat on Sunday. Nobody on the entire frontbench has raised with the Minister for Finance that the budget is unfair. Not one of them has gone to the Treasurer or Minister for Finance and said, 'I think cutting the pension is unfair. I think cutting young people out of Newstart is unfair. I think making Australians work until they are 70 is unfair.' Not one single one of them has had the gumption or courage to stand up for Australians who know that this budget is unfair. They know that they are in deep trouble the Australian people. They do not know how to fix it, because they will not drop and cannot drop their unfair budget. Whether they drop the Treasurer or not, what needs to change is the budget and the approach to the Australian people.

We know that this has had an impact on the economy, because the Australian people say this: 'We expect Liberal governments to be unfair, but we expect them to be competent as they go about it,' and they have not even managed that. We have seen the mixed messages, we have seen the loss, we have seen the change in approach day after day. We have seen the Prime Minister who cannot have the same message in the morning as the afternoon. He tells the senators from South Australia one thing and his ministers another.

The Treasurer cannot decide whether he is brilliant because he has passed the entire budget or the parliament is terrible because it will not pass the budget at all. He cannot work it out. He cannot work out whether the savings are necessary for budget repair, the creation of a medical health and research fund or for tax cuts. They are apparently all three, all at once. No wonder the Australian people have lost confidence in this Treasurer and in this economy. No wonder the Australian people have seen consumer confidence and business confidence fall on this Treasurer's watch.

It was 93.2 in January, said the Westpac-Melbourne Institute. This unfair budget has smashed consumer confidence. Westpac's chief economist, Bill Evans, said 'Pessimists still outnumber optimists by a significant majority.' Why would the Australian people not lose confidence when the Australian government does not have confidence in the Treasurer? Why would the Australian people not lose confidence in their government when they see headlines like this? If the government does not have confidence in the Treasurer, how can the Australian people have confidence in the Treasurer? They are the best headlines since this one that I am holding—

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