Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Instead of acting in the interests of Australians, this government is now acting in the interests of two people: the Prime Minister and the Treasurer.

In the wake of last year's disastrous budget the government descended into chaos and dysfunction. Literally only eight months after they had been elected by the Australian people we saw the backgrounding against particular ministers begin. Then started the leaks from cabinet, then, funnily enough, from the National Security Committee of cabinet. Then we had the incompetence of certain ministers: the Treasurer claiming, rather rudely, that poor people in Australia do not drive; and the defence minister—the former defence minister, I should add—claiming that Australian workers could not build a canoe.

Then we had the failed leadership spill, in which 39 members of the government said that they no longer wanted the Prime Minister to be Australia's Prime Minister. Then after that we had a major cabinet reshuffle. It is now not clear who the Treasurer actually is in this government and who is actually behind the announcements that are going to be made tonight.

Whilst all this was happening, Australians have continued to suffer. Unemployment has crept up to 6.2 per cent, the highest that it has been since 2002. Business and consumer confidence in Australia has crashed and that has affected domestic demand—we have seen that in our growth figures. Real incomes of Australians are growing at their lowest rate in history. The lives of several groups of Australians—students, families, pensioners and workers—have been made harder by this government. But one thing that we can say is that since this government was elected, Australians are worse off. We can say that with some certainty. Why? Because the government are more worried about their jobs than the jobs and welfare of Australians.

Tonight's budget will not be about the interests of the nation; it will be about the personal interests of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer. We have a Prime Minister who is under pressure. He faced a spill motion some months ago, and he had the hide to blame the member for Berowra for putting him in that position! It is rather ironic. Then you have the Treasurer, about whom it is claimed the government whip has said to the Prime Minister: 'If the Treasurer doesn't deliver tonight in the budget, he's got to go. He'll lose the confidence of members of the government.' What a wonderful endorsement of the Treasurer on the eve of this year's budget!

One of those who knows this more than most is the member for Cook, who, under indulgence, Mr Deputy Speaker, does not mind referring to himself as 'ScoMo'. ScoMo is on the hunt. ScoMo wants the Treasurer's job. How do we know this? At the weekend the Treasurer was asked by Laurie Oakes in an interview a question about what is an important element of the budget, and that is child care. What was the answer by the Treasurer? I will leave that to ScoMo to tell the Australian people later on today.

Yesterday ScoMo hit the airwaves selling his budget. He was out there in the morning and at one of his 50 media engagements, ScoMo—rather gracefully—credited the work of the Treasurer and compared the budget to a rugby league analogy.

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