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

Understandably the attention of the House and in many respects the attention of the nation has been focused on the Deputy Prime Minister and questions that he has to answer. Not only is there no doubt that the Treasurer has questions to answer but, in fact, there's no doubt that he's not up to the job he holds. The Deputy Prime Minister may or may not be eligible for the job he holds, but the Treasurer is not up to the job he has. There's a pattern of behaviour when it comes to economic policy.

Mr Pyne interjecting—

Well, it might be a little bit complicated for you, Christopher, but you stick with it. There's a pattern of behaviour when it comes to the economic policy of this government—and I do use the term 'economic policy' lightly, because they don't have much policy. When it comes to a speech from the Treasurer, a press conference with the Treasurer, I'd encourage honourable members to do a word search. You will see 'Labor', you will see 'Shorten', you will see 'Bowen', but you won't see any vision, you won't see any plans, you won't see the economic policy of the government being laid out. The Treasurer and the government are obsessed with the Labor Party and have no plans of their own.

On the other hand, we on this side of the House have over recent weeks been continuing to lead the policy debate. For example, we've been taking something out of the too-hard basket and putting it on the to-do list, dealing with family and discretionary trusts—actually repairing the budget through difficult decisions. I fully acknowledge that we are not the first people to think of this. We are not the first people who think that family trusts have to be reformed. In fact, John Howard, when he was Treasurer, thought that family trusts should be reformed. In fact, Peter Costello, when he was Treasurer, thought that family trusts should be reformed. Joe Hockey thought that family trusts should be reformed. Out of the last four Liberal Treasurers, three have thought family trusts should be reformed. The only exception is the current one. I give credit to Treasurer Howard; he did introduce some reforms to family trusts. Peter Costello and Joe Hockey both tried but got rolled in their party room. Well, we'll actually do what was too hard for them.

What was the response from the current Treasurer? There were two stages to the response. The first was the hyperventilation stage. When the Leader of the Opposition and I were explaining the need for reform, laying out the problem, the Treasurer went out there and held press conferences about how we were cracking down on farmers. He was asking what we had against disability trusts and saying how terrible it would all be. Then, when we actually announced the policy, we got to stage 2. Everything the Treasurer had said was wrong. Everything he'd warned about wasn't real. So then he went back into the witness protection program. He'd been a week out warning of all these terrible things and then he went back into hiding.

But he burst back onto the scene yesterday, onto the front pages of the newspapers. Pulling at a hole in Labor's policy or having some sober or well-crafted criticism—he couldn't come up with any of that. We read in the papers that he'd commissioned the Parliamentary Budget Office to undertake modelling of Labor's policies—all of them—in terms of their impact on the budget and how much taxes would increase. We saw in the Daily Telegraph, on page 1, 'The Parliamentary Budget Office and Treasury conducted independent modelling of Labor’s tax plans …' We saw in the Courier Mail: 'The Parliamentary Budget Office and Treasury analysis shows …' We saw in the Herald Sun: Independent Parliamentary Budget Office modelling, out today …' We saw in The Australian: 'Independent Parliamentary Budget Office modelling, out today …'

Then, on the day those newspapers appeared, we saw a release. We did see something come out from the Parliamentary Budget Office—that is true. The Parliamentary Budget Office did release a statement; I do concede that. But it was a little different to how it was reported. It said:

References in the media this morning to modelling being released today by the Parliamentary Budget Office are incorrect … The analysis reported in the media this morning was not conducted by the PBO.

I do not hold the newspapers or the journalists responsible; they acted in good faith, based on advice from the Treasurer of Australia. A journalist, when told something by the Treasurer of Australia, I am old-fashioned enough to think, is entitled to believe it and entitled to write it. The trouble is that the Treasurer forgot that in this building your main asset and attribute is your integrity. There was no Parliamentary Budget Office costing.

Then he went into damage control mode and said, 'Oh, it was the post-election report that the Parliamentary Budget Office did.' Well, included in the modelling was our trusts policy, which couldn't have been in the post-election report because it was announced post-election, and there was the update to our superannuation policy which we have announced since the election. So the Treasurer's alibi actually made it worse.

There is a track record when it comes to this Treasurer. He always goes with the cheap shot. He always goes with the slogan. I hope the House will bear with me, because some of what the Treasurer says is hard to keep up with and understand. There was 'a snake eating itself' yesterday. I really didn't know what was going on. Somehow or other there was a snake eating himself, and there were snakes back today. There was a six-shooter gun. Well, the Treasurer has shot himself in the foot yet again. We've seen that from the Treasurer. But he has a track record that is clear. This is the Treasurer who had a $2 billion black hole in his bank tax costings within a fortnight of the federal budget being brought down, and then he again made up an excuse about it that was inaccurate and misleading. This is the Treasurer who told us he was passionate about bracket creep. He was passionate about tax cuts and giving back to ordinary Australians. He felt so strongly about it that it was going to be the hallmark of his tenure as Treasurer. What has he done? He is trying to increase tax for everybody earning more than $21,000 a year in Australia. So much for those big swinging tax cuts that he was going to introduce. This is a Treasurer who thinks the answer to bracket creep is to increase tax for all Australians earning more than $21,000 a year. By the way, while we're on it, those figures the Treasurer released yesterday included the fact that Labor would keep the deficit levy, but they did not include the fact that Labor would not proceed with the increase in the Medicare levy for those Australians earning more than $21,000—very conveniently.

And, of course, this is a Treasurer who says his biggest challenge now—he's got a lot of challenges, this guy—is wages growth. Just like his answer to bracket creep is to increase taxes, his answer to low wages growth is to cut the wages of those who work on weekends. He's happy to see that happen on his watch.

This is a Treasurer who said there are excesses in negative gearing and then has proceeded to do absolutely nothing about it. He did have a housing affordability package in the budget, and what a damp squib that was. One of those measures was allowing access to voluntary contributions to superannuation for a housing deposit. The Treasurer was out there on 1 July spruiking it, saying, 'This is now in; come and get your superannuation!' The minister at the table says, 'Yes, hear, hear!' They haven't even introduced the legislation to the House. They were boasting about it on 1 July and it has still not even been introduced! The tax office has warned people that they should not access a scheme which has not been passed by the parliament. This is the incompetence of this government and the incompetence of this guy here at the table, the member for Deakin, who said that the package in the budget would be huge, that it would be welcomed. Expectations management isn't your strong suit, sport!

This Treasurer and his sidekick have absolutely squibbed the issue of housing affordability that is so important to the Australian people right across the country. There are parents and grandparents who are wondering how their children will be able to get into the housing market. They'll be wondering how their children and grandchildren can possibly afford property investment—when we have the most generous tax concessions in the world, when we have investor rates at record highs and first home owner rates at record lows. They'll wonder how something can happen for their children and grandchildren to get into the housing market. While this government's in place, the answer is: nothing can happen, because they don't get it. They don't care. And this Treasurer is too incompetent to do anything about it.

There is a cost to be paid for this incompetence while the Treasurer is engaging in these frolics. We're not coming up with a plan to deal with income inequality, because he doesn't believe it exists in Australia; he's an inequality denier. We're not coming up with a plan to keep Australia's 26 years of uninterrupted economic growth going. We're not coming up with a plan for housing affordability. There's a real cost to be paid.

Kerry Packer once said, 'You only get one Alan Bond in your life.' Well, I've had Joe Hockey and Scott Morrison, so I'm luckier than Kerry Packer! But I'll tell you who is not lucky: the Australian people who have been lumbered with these incompetent treasurers, the Australian people who have been lumbered with a government that has no economic plan and a government that doesn't care about them. It has no ideas and no plans and no vision for the future.

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