Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

My fellow Australians, a budget should match the priorities of the nation, and the priority of our nation should be a plan for the future, a plan for the decades to come, a plan to build beyond the mining boom, a plan for confidence. Our people and our nation are interesting, imaginative, caring, productive and adaptive. But the 2015 budget has neither the qualities nor the priorities of the Australian people. Australians awaited this budget in fear, anticipation and hope—fear that the unfairness and cruelty of last year's budget would be repeated; anticipation that it might not; hope that the government would at last, after 613 days, get the economy right. But once again, in every way, this government let Australia down.

The test for this budget was to plan for the future, to lift productivity, to create jobs, to boost investment, to turbocharge confidence for the years and decades ahead, to restore hope, but this budget fails every test. It is a hoax, a mirage, a smokescreen. To the extent that the Treasurer pretends that this budget is in any way remedial to the Australian economy, it is a hoax. Does it return Australia to trend growth this year or in future years? No. Does it smooth the transition in our economy? No. Does it deal with the challenges of the digital age and the new skills and jobs that we need? No. Does it deepen our engagement with Asia? Does it help older Australians live in comfort? Does it advance the equal treatment of women? Does it tackle climate change? No, no, no and no. It is nothing but a cosmetic job by a very desperate make-up artist.

And this budget has also missed the main game: the challenge that defines life in the 2020s. Let me unpack this for you. In 2012, eight per cent of our GDP was investment. It is now slumping to as low as two per cent. This is a fourfold contraction. In a $1.6 trillion economy, it is a $96 billion contraction, the biggest that Australia has witnessed. This is the reason we are living in a low-growth economy: the massive step change, the step-down in investment.

But what does this budget do about it? A giveaway to start a fire sale at a second-hand-car yard and Harvey Norman? That is good as far as it goes, but it does not go very far. The sum total of this government's stimulus is a $5.1 billion deposit against a $96 billion withdrawal. Is the Treasurer seriously asking Australians to believe that this is the best he can do in response to a $96 billion withdrawal? Even the government knows that this is a short-term fix. They must. They have only booked the measure for the next two years.

The truth is that the 2015 budget is silent on the big picture, the next decade, the long run. The budget records the government's lack of vision and the price that our economy is paying for it. This budget drops the ball on reform, change and fiscal sense. It is a sorry rollcall: 17 new taxes; tax at its highest level in a decade; the deficit doubled, up from $17 billion to $35 billion since the Treasurer's last budget; spending outweighing revenue every year; over 800,000 Australians unemployed; and no plan to tackle the structural deficit.

The only polite description for the forecasts in this budget is that they are an experiment in hope over experience. This budget is built upon improving forecasts preceded by worsening results. According to the Treasurer, nominal GDP is forecast to jump by a whopping four percentage points in two years. This year it came in at half of what he forecast 12 months ago. Tuesday's budget banked wages growth at 2½ per cent. Wednesday's figures put it at 2.3 per cent, and experts predict it will stay low.

The truth is that there is a trifecta of indecencies underpinning this budget: (1) the repackaging of last year's unfairness, cuts to schools, hospitals, universities and family support; (2) relying on bracket creep to increase taxation by stealth; and (3) their unconscionable attack on the states. Yes, Madam Speaker, it is a bad budget. In every respect, this budget is a hoax. It is an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of Australians. Where it counts, this is last year's budget, rebranded, reheated and repackaged for an opinion poll; the same broken promises; the same unfair, extreme ideology wrapped in trickery.

Last year's budget cut $6,000 from families working hard to make ends meet. Those cuts are still in this budget, and Labor will never support them. Last year's budget cut university funding by 20 per cent and ambushed students with higher fees and bigger debt. This unfairness is still in the budget, and I can promise you this, Christopher Pyne: Labor will vote against $100,000 degrees every time you bring them to this parliament.

Those in the gallery applauding—

See this speech in context