Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

In question time today we saw the ashen-faced look on the faces of those opposite, as it slowly dawned on them that all they did in September last year was to replace one barely adequate scare campaign with another terrible scare campaign. It was a hangdog expression on their faces as they realised that all they had done in September was to elect somebody who is long on words and short on deeds. The revelation slowly dawned on them that, even though neither the member for Warringah nor the member for Wentworth can run a government, at least the member for Warringah could run a scare campaign.

Like all Australians, those opposite expected better from the member for Wentworth. He promised them leadership and instead they got shambles. As the Prime Minister turns around in question time, as he did today, because he does not want to answer a question and he almost throws it to the Treasurer, and he thinks, 'No, I can't do that, I’ll throw that to another minister instead' that is just an indication of the free-fall that the Treasurer of Australia is in when it comes to credibility. The Treasurer, whose answers are so pathetic in this place, is now routinely ignored by his colleagues.

The most effective symbol of the chaos and confusion on that side of the House is when it comes to housing policy and tax policy. There is a whole range of issues on housing, as other speakers before me have raised—issues around housing affordability, particularly for our young people; home ownership rates that have dropped among young people; and the fact that it takes many more years of a normal person's income to pay off a house. These are the issues we are dealing with in the housing sector.

Instead of a plan for housing or a plan for tax from those opposite, we get this humiliating spectacle which was best encapsulated last week when they tried to argue that our policies would drive prices up and down and flat line all at the same time. It is an absurd and humiliating spectacle to see an Assistant Treasurer, a Treasurer and a Prime Minister who cannot get their facts straight. The Prime Minister looks around him now and sees that his scare campaign is in rubble all around him, shards of credibility lying all around the Prime Minister as he gets up in question time, again and again, and tries to argue that black is white when it comes to housing.

After 2½ years of government, there has not been a whiff of a policy from those opposite on capital gains, not a skerrick of a policy on negative gearing, not even a hint of an idea about housing and housing's role in the broader economy. You can see why these two blokes across the table are so grumpy, because it has even dawned on them. They are not the sharpest tools in the shed, but it has even dawned on these two that in September last year they traded down, not up. What a remarkable thought: when they replaced the member for Warringah, they traded down, not up. And it is dawning even on these two sitting across from me right now—what a waste of time.

No wonder The Financial Review asked of the Prime Minister: what is the point of Malcolm Turnbull? No wonder the Prime Minister is getting shirt-fronted by the member for Warringah in his own party room. No wonder the backbenchers are in open revolt, taking away from the Treasurer the tax-making policy of this country. No wonder the Prime Minister throws to the Minister for Social Services, they are in such disarray. No wonder the Prime Minister has appointed the head of his own department so that the Treasurer of Australia has no role in the making of tax policy in this country.

This is what happens when you do not have a plan for the economy—this kind of chaos. When the Prime Minister does not deliver on the leadership that was promised this is what happens. When there is no direction in economic policy that was promised by the member for Wentworth this is what happens. It affects their ability to come up with a housing plan just like it affects their ability to come up with a broader economic plan.

How humiliating for the government and for the colossal ego that sits in the big chair that the opposition are making the running on economic policy in this country. How humiliating for the two B-graders at the table that it is the opposition that are making the running on policy. We have the plans to fund health and education in this country. We have the plans to level the playing field between investors and first home owners in the housing market. We have a plan to boost the supply of housing in this economy. We have a plan to boost construction jobs in this economy. We have the plans for housing and for tax. It is humiliating and embarrassing for those opposite that after 2½ years and two treasurers and two prime ministers that they have no idea what they want to do for the economy. This election will be a contest of ideas on the economy and we are going to win it.

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