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

Like the rest of the Australian people, Labor has watched the tumultuous last 24 hours. Many Australians actually hope that the events, regardless of the manner and the method, will be a move away from the reactionary, fractured government of Mr Abbott. We know the list. Apparently everyone in this government supported them and never raised these particularly, but we know the list of this reactionary, fractured government—this government of a wasted two years taking Australia nowhere. We remember the knighthoods. We remember the unfairness and the unbroken promises of the 2014 and 2015 budgets. We remember the more recent foolish remarks, denigrating climate change, by the immigration minister—the latest in a string of insensitive blunders and gaffs by that repeat offender. We remember the petty ideological fights with everyone who ever dared to be a critic of this government. Most importantly, we remember the lack of economic direction and the lack of economic leadership, rising unemployment, stalled growth and falling wages.

Now our new Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull, has made a promise to restore stability. He has said that they will restore cabinet government. Now I happen to think that just promising to have a cabinet government, in and of itself, is not exactly the tyranny of high expectations. But we, the Australian people and Labor on behalf of the Australian people, look forward to even this modicum of stability. But what I wish to place on record today is that good intentions alone are not enough. The real challenge is that Mr Turnbull leads a political party hugely of the reactionary right. The question which remains to be seen after the last two wasted years of this experimental Liberal government is: can Mr Turnbull move this reactionary party to something approaching approximating the centre of Australian politics?

Labor have always been prepared to be constructive if we receive and see rational, reasonable policy—not, of course, the unfairness and the dishonesty of the 2014 budget. But our fear for Australia is that the Turnbull Liberal government is already fatally comprised. The once great Liberals have moved to the right, and the test for the Prime Minister is: can he bring the Liberal Party back to the centre against the proclivities of a range of his MPs and, indeed, his new partners, the Nationals? But we already see that Mr Turnbull has made promises. He has been prepared to throw his long-held convictions overboard. He has made a deal with the National Party, the existence of which we had to practically interrogate the government to concede. He says, ' Well, it will all be dealt with by cabinet.' But the problem is the deal is already done. You do not run government and cabinet government by fait accompli. So much for the pledge for new process! Indeed, in his first hour on the job, Mr Turnbull has already given away $3.6 billion that his new apprentice Treasurer—we are not quite sure who the Treasurer is; we are just reasonably sure it is not the current one—has already spent on his childcare package.

In the period between now and whenever the election takes place, perhaps we will finally get the answer to the great conundrum of Australian Liberal politics: is it style over substance? Today in question time, I asked Mr Turnbull, 'Are the policies going to change?' And he said very clearly, 'We support all of our current policies.' To me this confirms that last night the change was all about the style. It was about panicked MPs worrying about their job security and not thinking about the jobs of Australians. There is nothing of substance which will change in this government.

Another way to put this question is this conundrum of Australian politics: is it style over substance? Does Mr Turnbull believe in much at all? Does he believe in taking political risks to see Australia advance? I know he says he believes in the republic, marriage equality and climate change. But does he really want to advance the republic? Will he have to be signed up to become a constitutional monarchist to keep his caucus in line? Why does he not wish to fulfil the Menzian tradition of a free vote on important matters like marriage equality? He says, 'Oh, no, we want to have the people.' That is fine, Mr Turnbull. The people will get to decide at the next election. What I do not understand is why he wants to have a $150 million taxpayer-funded opinion poll designed by the man he replaced to delay marriage equality in his country. Another example of what Mr Turnbull does or does not believe in is: will he move to an emissions trading scheme or will he compromise? Has he done a deal to obtain the highest office in the land which means throwing overboard issues which he said he has believed in for a very long time?

The truth is that Australia wants more than a new Liberal leader; it wants a new direction. Mr Turnbull yesterday, said that the case for change was this: we need to have a cabinet government. Thanks for telling us that for the last two years you were not participating in a cabinet government. When did you decide that the cabinet government was not a cabinet government, and why did it take you two years and two rotten budgets to be truthful with the Australian people? Mr Turnbull said yesterday the case for dumping Mr Abbott was that there have been 30 Newspolls in a roll. That is it—30 Newspolls in a row—and they decided: 'That's it, Mr Abbott. We are going to change who the leader is.' Furthermore, what he and his deputy said is that there was real change in the party room. Well, apart from the deputy leader and Mr Turnbull, actually there were only 52 people that changed what they thought. So all of this is the case for sacking Mr Abbott: the panic of a bare majority of Liberal MPs and some opinion polls.

I do not think, though, that last night was all about that. I think it was actually a rejection of Mr Abbott on some deeper grounds. It was not just the self-interest of Liberal MPs and it was not just a string of bad opinion polls. Last night was not just a rejection of Mr Abbott; it was a rejection of the last two years. How dreadful it must feel to wake up every morning and work in a government and realise your first two years of government has to be junked. How dreadful must it be to look in the mirror and realise that the nation does not want what you have been selling Australia: two years under this dysfunctional government, two years under what has clearly been a very divided government—although no-one told Mr Hockey what was going on at all.

But the real problems are not the dislikes of those opposite me. The real problem is that unemployment is up. I think we are all sick and tired of the government saying there have been a certain number of jobs created. Why don't they tell the truth? When you look at the number of extra Australians in the last two years of adult working age, only 57 per cent of these people are actually in work. The real truth of the matter is that this has been a lacklustre, do-nothing, disastrous government . Underemployment is up. Youth unemployment is up. Debt is up Deficit is up. Growth is down. Confidence is down. Real wages increases are down on what they have normally been. We have just gone through two years of cuts to pensions, cuts to schools, cuts to hospitals, cuts to families, cuts to carers, cuts to veterans and attacks on Medicare. There are the $100,000 degrees. There have even been cuts to the ABC and SBS.

The truth is that the question that Australians have is: what does Mr Turnbull believe in? Does he believe that this is just a question of changing the salesman or the product? Is it just a change of leader or is it a change of direction? The truth is that all those people who voted Mr Abbott out last night—Mr Turnbull and his whole coterie of supporters—have voted for every cut for every pension. There are reams of transcripts. This group, who now say that the economic direction has been wrong, were for two years cheering it along. They have sat at the same cabinet table and they have signed the same deals. I believe now that the burden is upon Mr Turnbull to choose policies that are in the best interests of this nation to prove that he believes in something beyond his own promotion.

Our party is guided by universal principles. We have certainty and comfort in our values and our vision. We shall see where this rather ratty Liberal Party goes. There is a chance for this nation to step up and debate policies in this parliament for the next election that give Australians a genuine choice about the best path to the future. Labor is up for this challenge. We will find out if the government are.

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