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

There is no adrenaline rush. We will get to confidence in a minute, the member for Fraser. He could have tabled that, but he did not. Is it any wonder that growth is down when confidence has been so down on this government's watch? Business and consumer confidence is down. Westpac's Consumer Sentiment shows consumer confidence remains down, even after the recent change of management, the coup, where the first-term Prime Minister was cut down by the member for Wentworth. It remains down by 12 per cent on the election. The index has been under 100 for 18 out of the last 20 readings, which means it is in negative territory. Confidence remains down because of the lack of confidence in the economic management of this government. The backbench showed lack of confidence in the economic management of the Abbott-Hockey government and the nation has lack of confidence in the economic management of the new Treasurer, and we are continuing to see that play out day after day.

We have had two years of failed leadership—two wasted years under the Liberal-National Party government. We were promised an adrenaline charge to confidence and all we have had is two wasted years. There has been two years of arrogance, two years of false starts, two years of missed opportunities and two years of prejudice and cuts, exactly the opposite of what the Australian people were promised. The performance has been so bad over two years that the government cut down their Prime Minister, because they were told that economic management was not up to scratch. That was the campaign pitch of the member for Wentworth: economic management has not been up to scratch and he said he had a new plan to fix it, and that new plan was the member for Cook. The new plan is not working either. Plan B turns out to be as much of a shocker as plan A. What we see is that the member for Cook is clearly not up to the job. The arrogance is there, the insults are there and the lack of confidence is there, but we do not have an economic strategy to promote growth and opportunity. We do not have an understanding of the budgetary pressures on Australian families, and we saw that play out with the sterling performance by the Minister for Social Services today.

I know I am meant to constrain my remarks to the Treasurer, Mr Deputy Speaker Vasta, but I am sure you will not mind if we point out for just a moment that this is a cabinet-wide problem. One of the most senior ministers in the government—the Minister for Social Services—is clearly not on top of his brief and is arrogantly lecturing to Australia's families and Australia's grandparents that they have to go back to work or they should put their 15-year-old in child care, bizarrely. No wonder the Treasurer thought he had a good day, because the Minister for Social Services finally got to his feet and finally the Treasurer looked like one of the more competent ministers in the Turnbull government.

In fairness, I do not hold the new Treasurer responsible for all the economic problems in this nation; the entire Liberal-National Party government of the last two years created these problems. The new Treasurer needs to be on top of his brief if he is going to get on top of the incompetence of the last two years. The new Treasurer needs to show that he has the empathy and the understanding of the issues. The new Treasurer needs to show that has an understanding of the full details of his portfolio if he is to turn around this mess, this two year mess of economic management, which sees growth down, confidence down, investment down, unemployment up, the deficit up and debt up. Can this Treasurer turn this around? Can this Treasurer fix the mess of the last two years? The evidence is in, and the answer is no.

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