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

It started to decline when the Treasurer opened his mouth and he revealed to the Australian people, in little bits, his budget strategy, which was to cut payments, which was to embark on cuts to Australian families and pensioners, and also, importantly, when he engaged in his rhetorical flourishes about the future of Australia. Madam Speaker, I say to you very clearly, it is irresponsible for the Treasurer of Australia to compare our nation to the economy of Greece. It is simply irresponsible to do so, because what a Treasurer says matters. What a Treasurer says matters just as much as what he does. When the Treasurer talks about Australia going down the path of debt towards Greece, is it any wonder we see consumer and business confidence so heavily impacted and therefore heavily impacting on those Australians who are looking for work, those Australians who are running small businesses, those Australians who are looking for growth in the Australian economy? This Treasurer damages those people every time he opens his mouth. Every time, we see a mixed message from the government. Every time, we see a change in the story. We remember the changing alibis on the surplus. We were told there would be a surplus in the first year and every year of an Abbott government. Then at the campaign launch we were told we would have a surplus within 10 years. Then we were told last week we would have broad balance in five years—then surpluses disappearing and deficits for 40 years after that.

Then we saw a new focus earlier in the week. The Treasurer gave a PowerPoint presentation to the party room. There are a few things here. We were told that all new spending will be offset by savings that are responsible and fair. That is a novel approach compared to the last budget. That is a change of approach. But then we come to the surplus, and a very definitive statement was made to the party room, a clear statement of intent from the Treasurer. We have even got a slide: 'We will get the budget back to surplus as soon as possible,' he told the party room, in a great statement. We have the ASAP strategy now when it comes to the surplus! Is it any wonder that the Australian people look at the government and say: 'If they can't get their story straight, how can they get the economy right? If they can't get their story on their own budget right, how can they understand the impact of their own decisions?'

This is what we are seeing day after day: chaos when it comes to the last budget and chaos when it comes to the next budget as well.

We have seen extraordinary leaks from the Treasury, a fine institution and a Treasury which is in despair at this Treasurer's management. We saw a report just recently saying:

There is growing concern in the upper ranks of the federal bureaucracy that the budget process is adrift, with just two months to go before it is delivered.

We saw senior officials say, 'It is five minutes to midnight,' and that time is running out for ministers to set a clear direction. The report went on to say:

The confusion in the bureaucratic ranks is a product of the mixed messages being sent by both the Prime Minister and Treasurer: that hard choices have to be made to repair the nation's finances; and that much of the work is already done.

Is it any wonder that even the Treasury is confused by this Treasurer's remarks? Even the Treasury is confused by this Treasurer's direction because he has none. He has no direction and no budget strategy. He does not know what to do with the budget, a budget which will be delivered at that dispatch box in just a few weeks time. We are seeing that impacting on the Australian economy every day. We have seen the impact of the last budget on consumer confidence, we have seen the impact of the last budget on business confidence and we see the continuing impact of this Treasurer's incompetence.

We see it in the unemployment figures. I talked before about those Australians who are looking for work, joining the lines of the unemployed. We see the Treasurer getting up to the dispatch box and boasting about what is up. How about talking about unemployment being up? How about talking about unemployment being 6.3 per cent and the fact that 80,000 more people cannot find a job, many of them young people? I do not use the term 'crisis' loosely. It is not a term that I use easily or often, but I say to the Treasurer: there is a youth unemployment crisis in Australia and he should be dealing with it. I say to the Treasurer: there is a youth unemployment crisis in Australia and he can deal with it by instilling more confidence in the Australian economy, not less.

The Treasurer has to come to terms with one simple fact: he no longer has my job—he is now the Treasurer of Australia, not the shadow Treasurer of Australia, and it is his responsibility to talk about the Australian economy in its proper context. It is no longer his responsibility to talk the Australian economy down, if it ever was down, which it was not. It is his responsibility as the custodian of the nation's finances and its economy to be responsible in his commentary—to drop the rhetoric about Greece, to drop the rhetoric about Australia's path in the future and to start levelling with the Australian people about his plans and his budget strategy. But he is not capable of doing so. He has been Treasurer now for long enough to know what needs to be done in his budget, but he cannot settle on one strategy or one coherent approach.

We know the Prime Minister will say anything that comes into his head. We see it at the dispatch box day after day, in question time after question time. You never know who he is going to insult next. You never know what statement he is going to make on the run next.

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