Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Gellibrand hits the nail on the head. Eleven months on—

Government members interjecting—

We are very happy to talk about leadership—39 votes for a blank space. That is another succinct statement on the quality of this government and its economic agenda. Eleven months on from last month's budget, one thing is clear: the budget is in a worse position than when this government came to power. And I am indebted, like my friend the member for Chifley, to the Australian Financial Review and a terrific comment piece by Laura Tingle, who said:

We are being governed by fools and it is not funny.

This is a piece worth reading in detail, but perhaps I will just go to what I think is the critical comment. When she goes through the shocking deterioration in the budget positioning and the series of humiliating backflips this government has had to endure, she comes to this point:

… the government's utter failure to prosecute either the policy arguments or political strategies to get voters to countenance its signature policies, is a responsibility that rests squarely with the government of the day.

And that is the proposition that this debate seeks to illuminate. And what light has been shed on it by government members? The chaos that is at the heart of the government, the chaos that no doubt was at the core of the Treasurer's PowerPoint presentation to the party room, the chaos that is the Prime Minister's ever utterance on matters of economic policy is something that is not shared only by the members of the executive of this government; it clearly goes right through the members of it. The shadow Treasurer, on the other hand, set out very clearly the consequences and costs of this incompetence—the two sets of costs. We know here, from the people we represent, the direct costs of this failure. We see the victims of austerity, the victims of the cuts—the sick, those on fixed incomes and students, who are Australia's future. We should also focus in this debate on the indirect costs, the costs to the wider economy of keeping unemployment at unrealistic, unnecessary and tragically high levels, particularly for young people.

This chaos, this confusion which carries such severe consequences, was there at the start. We on this side know that this government came into power talking down the Australian economy at home while talking it up abroad. The Treasurer went to London to deliver a keynote speech attacking 'the age of entitlement'. He set out his agenda for austerity overseas because he knew it would not be accepted at home. Perhaps there is an intuitive understanding among government members that it is not just the incompetence of their economic agenda but its unacceptable nature that means they are incapable of prosecuting this agenda. Five minutes is not nearly enough to canvass the litany of sins from the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the Minister for Communications and all government members which has led to this incompetent, chaotic approach to economic management. But I go back to where I began: when does good government start? (Time expired)

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