Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today, we have a bizarre matter of political distraction from the same people who spent up big when they were in charge of the public purse and left a massive, gaping hole in the public credit card. Their level of fiscal incompetence was unparalleled. There was cash for clunkers, pink batts, $900 cheques to people who had died, set top boxes and millions of dollars of payments from taxes that never eventuated—just to name a few.

Who are they to talk about household budgets? The Labor Party approaches public accounts in the same reckless way a few of their faceless bosses use a union credit card. Where was the current Labor leader's concern for the health and wellbeing of the families of four women who worked as mushroom pickers a few years back when he was leader of the union negotiating wages and conditions on their behalf? Where was the former union leader's concern when the women were made redundant and then asked to reapply for their jobs through a labour hire company? Where did the $4,000-a-month payments go, which the union received over six months in return for what the union claimed was for health and safety training? Where was the Labor leader's concern for the household budgets of struggling Australian families when Cleanevent signed off on a secret sweetheart deal with the union that cut cleaners' penalty rates and saved the company $1.5 million? Most people who know what has been going on in the labour market now know that in return for extending the 2006 enterprise bargaining agreement, the company agreed to pay the union $25,000 a year for three years in membership fees. Just last month, The Advertiser reported that under Bill Shorten's EBA, Cleanevent's level 1 casual cleaners were paid $18.14 an hour, rather than the $50.17 an hour they were entitled to under the 2010 award—a 176 per cent pay cut. A leopard does not change its spots and the Labor leader is wasting his time looking sheepishly naïve about the 'put it on the credit card practice' of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Labor governments that created such a mess of the Howard government's great legacy of leaving money in the bank and year-on-year surpluses.

However, it is worth noting, the recent Intergenerational report shows how the decisions already enacted by the coalition government are making real progress in fixing Labor's mess. Continuing Labor's unsustainable spending would have given Australia a massively higher debt of $5.6 trillion! And, guess what happens when Labor acts like a dodgy union leader and goes on a reckless spending spree? Someone has to pay for it. In this case it is not only the poorly served union members who are paying Labor politicians to sit on that side of the House. Sadly, every single Australian man, woman and child are still paying a lot more than they should because a few years ago Labor MPs and a group of former union leaders sat on this side of the House.

History demonstrates that every Australian has to pay for the reckless and irresponsible spending decisions of Labor governments. Difficult decisions have to be made. A growing economy is the best and only real way to guarantee jobs for the future and to support a strong welfare safety net that ensures people and families do not get left behind.

Our plan is to build a strong national platform for economic growth and jobs that backs Australians who are out there every day making their way in the world, working hard, saving for their future, and investing in their capabilities and opportunities. Our plan is designed to back Australia and Australians to earn more. The government will reform and restructure family tax benefit to give families money each fortnight, to encourage workforce participation and to fund the new child-care system. Around 1.2 million families or 2.2 million children will benefit from an increase in their FTB A fortnightly rates. We are also increasing the fortnightly rates of youth allowance and disability support pension, so that they are aligned with the new FTB A rate.

The coalition government wants to help families find affordable child care. This is an important productivity measure that will also boost female workforce participation. From 1 July 2017, our new child-care subsidies will support parents who choose to work. It will mean working families with incomes between $65,000 and $170,000 will be around $30 a week better off. The coalition is backing children's education with more funding than ever before. I am    fairly sure there are a few struggling Australian households that have a national— (Time expired)

See this speech in context