Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

After almost four years here, I continue to be amazed by this government's inability to provide any economic leadership. I remember in 2015 they thought they were finally going to get it right. Arriving in the Treasury portfolio with such prospects, the member for Cook was lauded in the press as setting a new agenda and leaving the confusion of the previous two years behind. However, he, like the government, continues to disappoint by ignoring the problems of ordinary Australians and, instead, preoccupying himself with half-baked attacks on the opposition.

This isn't new. We have become accustomed to being disappointed when it comes to this Treasurer and the economy. How can Australians be expected to have any confidence in a government who gets it so wrong and is so out of touch on economic policy? The government steadfastly have not supported a royal commission into the banks, with the member for Cook claiming, in April last year, that ASIC has the powers of a royal commission. This continues to be untrue. In the meantime, those opposite have ignored headline after headline while the banks continue from one scandal to another, seemingly with impunity. There cannot be confidence in this sector when we hear day after day about incidents that point to systemic issues. While those opposite continue to ignore the problems, people like those in my electorate bear the brunt of them.

Another clear example of this government's lack of leadership is its approach to negative gearing. In fact, at one point it appeared the Treasurer wasn't even sure what negative gearing actually was. On 25 November 2016, he said:

… negative gearing … is the ability for you to deduct what is a business expense against a business income.

In fact negative gearing allows someone to deduct a business or investment expense against their wage or salary. The Treasurer was wrong. Given this lack of understanding, it's perhaps unsurprising that the government has been all over the place when it comes to negative gearing. Under this current Prime Minister and the Treasurer, the government was first open to negative gearing reform before ruling it out. Then the Treasurer said the government would only target the 'excesses' of negative gearing and began considering limiting the number of properties that can be negatively geared. Now here we are, 18 months later, wondering if it was all a dream. In April this year the Treasurer ruled out changes to negative gearing in the budget because, 'Regardless of one's opinion of the merits or otherwise of negative gearing, it is an established structural component of the Australian housing markets.' It exists. While the acknowledgment of the existence of negative gearing might cut the mustard for visionary leadership in this government, it certainly falls well short of assisting prospective first home buyers; nor is the mere existence of negative gearing a compelling reason not to act on it.

Then, in the same speech, the Treasurer lamented that there are 'key workers such as nurses, teachers and police officers who can't afford to rent or buy in the communities they serve'. Just yesterday, on The Chris Smith Show, the Treasurer claimed that one in five police officers negatively gear and for that reason Labor's policies are reckless. By the Treasurer's logic, the nurses and teachers and police officers who can't afford to rent or buy are also doing most of the negative gearing. To be fair to the Treasurer, it's been revealed his proposals to reform negative gearing were dumped by cabinet, making it the first time a Prime Minister and a Treasurer have been overruled by cabinet since the 1970s. It serves to show us that, despite the Prime Minister's assurance to the country, this is a government that lacks strong leadership.

Yesterday, the member for Cook came in swinging with what was supposed to be a big attack on Labor, backed by figures ostensibly from the independent Parliamentary Budget Office. The banner headline was that the Parliamentary Budget Office had determined there would be tax hikes of $100 billion, $150 billion or $300 billion under Labor—wrong on all counts. Of course we quickly discovered that the PBO had nothing to do with these costings at all when they very publicly embarrassed the Treasurer by pointing out in a press release that they provided no such advice. The fact that he failed to do his homework or critically research these figures isn't the most disappointing part. To people like those living in my electorate in south-western Sydney, what is most disappointing is that it shows yet again the Treasurer is more interested in political pointscoring than doing his job and taking an interest in problems that are faced by these people and their families everyday—jobs, wages, access to education and housing affordability.

While Labor is actually listening and responding to these problems in its policy, those opposite continue to demonstrate that their priority is simply clinging to government without any commitment to actually helping Australians. In fact, in many cases they're making things worse with measures like slashing penalty rates and reducing support for families in need.

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