Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, what a morning it is in the federal parliament. We have done a bit of a history test here. It does not happen very often that we discharge bills. It does not happen very often that we see a minister from the other side come in here and give us a demonstration of what small government looks like. He looked small this morning, creeping into the chamber, and he is going to walk backwards out of the chamber when this debate is finished today because, of course, he is torn today. He has to come in here and discharge legislation that he passionately believes in. He has told us that time and time again while they have traipsed through those doors to vote for these pieces of legislation—not once, not twice but for months. For four years—for a thousand days—they have said they believed in these measures, and they have to come in here today and take them away from the parliament. This is not because they have a lack of faith in them and not because they no longer believe in them. It is not because, suddenly, they spent some time out in the real world, where we live, and learnt that some of these measures are appallingly cruel and that some of these measures would actually hurt our local economies. And it is not because they have figured these things out: it is because the division on their side, inside their own caucus, has meant that they have to try to find a new way and to pretend to have found a heart. That is what they are doing this morning. They are coming in here to get rid of measures that have been cynically called, 'zombie' measures, and they believe that after this morning they will disappear out of people's minds and people's memories.

It is a strange day in the federal parliament, but it is a great day to sit here and look at the face of the member for Jagajaga and encourage her in her war against their unfair measures in this chamber. It is a proud day for all of us to stand here and say that for a thousand days we have fought for the people who live in our communities. For a thousand days we have met with them and we have listened to them. We have imagined their lives if we did not know them. We have visited their homes and we have talked to them in the street. We understand what these measures would have meant in their lives. Now, we get to be in this chamber while those opposite crab walk away from these measures. They are crab walking, cynically, away from these measures that they firmly believe in.

Let us think about what these measures were. Like the member for Macquarie, I cannot get past the idiocy and imbecility of thinking that young people could go without support and without unemployment benefits for six months, that the planet they live on has parents who can pay mortgages without any contribution from the young people who live in their families. I cannot get past their absolute lack of understanding about how millions of Australians live, and their lack of understanding that we had to work for a decade to raise retention rates in schools. These were low not because kids were not smart enough to stay at school, and not because schools did not want kids to be at school, but because kids left school to work to make a contribution to their family income. There are families in this country for whom the 16-year-old's salary is the difference between paying the rent and not paying the rent. They wanted to thrust upon these families their children coming home—25-year-olds returning home to live with their families—on meagre incomes. 'Let's open the door and bring all the children home again, because we're going to kick them off benefits for six months.'

The government gave no thought to what that would have meant to someone who owned a rental property who suddenly had a vacant property because the tenants had not been able to pay their rent. They had no thought about what that would have meant in terms of tenancy. They had no thought about the backlog. They had no thought about evictions.

They have an absolute lack of understanding about how real people live. We saw it in their pursuit of changes to Medicare and in their pursuit to undermine Medicare. We had that confirmed last week—I do not know if we have mentioned it in this parliament since we have got back—in that moment when our Prime Minister congratulated the President of the US on undermining the health care for millions of Americans. It was that moment where we saw, with absolute lucidity, what our Prime Minister stands for: absolutely nothing. He stands for nothing. Lost in the moment, he chose to congratulate someone for doing something that would be abhorred by the people of this country.

This social services minister came to the portfolio in a reshuffle that occurred somewhere after the 2014 budget, when someone said, 'We'd better make a few moves here.' In fact, I think the current Treasurer had the portfolio before him, so they were his zombie measures originally. This minister came to that portfolio with a lot of fanfare. He was going to shake up the world. He was going to save the bottom line. He was going to fix everything for this government. Today, he walks in here and chooses not to speak while they discharge four pieces of legislation that have been in this parliament for 1,000 days. He fronts up to that dispatch box and says nothing. I understand that he is torn. I understand that he has to try and get to that box and say something that is going to convince the world that he no longer believes in these things, when he clearly does believe in these things. That would be a difficult thing to do. He has to try and not say something that contradicts all of the things that he has said in the last four years. So, really, it was a hard job. It was a hard thing they asked him to come in here to do today. It was a very hard thing. But he could have made some show of it. He could have given some heart to it. He could have made some suggestion at the dispatch box that he really has seen the light. But the Minister for Social Services has not seen the light, and this government has not seen the light. I predict these measures will be back. They will be tweaked. They might go after young people until they are 26 or 27. These measures might come back in a worse state than they are leaving the chamber today.

This government's decision-making across the last two months has been given wholly and solely to try and keep their current Prime Minister in the job. The division in their caucus is extraordinary. We have the front bench march in here and tell us they know how to run this country. It is all about the bottom line. It is all about being fiscally restrained. It is all about spending—remember it was all about spending last night. We woke up to—

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