Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion put forward by the member for Forde who, strangely, is not in the chamber and couldn't get anyone from his own side to support his motion. His motion makes three points, and I'll speak on each of them in turn. The first is on growth in the economy. Like all sensible Australians I'm pleased that the global economy has strengthened, but the International Monetary Fund has recently downgraded economic growth expectations for Australia. The IMF, hardly a left-wing organisation, has raised risks about our future outlook. This downgrade, occurring on Prime Minister Morrison's watch, indicates that heightened global challenges are on the horizon. The IMF is urging countries to build up fiscal buffers and to urgently adopt policies promoting strong and inclusive growth. Under the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government, the ATM government, growth has been less than inclusive.

Treasurer Frydenberg has abandoned the Liberals' own rules for budget repair. Despite favourable conditions and billions of extra dollars of revenue flowing into government coffers, this hapless ATM government has managed to worsen the budget position. The deficit for 2017-18 has blown out to almost four times worse than the Liberals forecast in their first budget. Gross debt has crashed through half a trillion dollars for the first time in Australia's history and now sits at a record $540.1 billion. Net debt has doubled since they came to office. In the 43rd parliament I remember a truck being driven around Parliament House that talked about a debt-and-deficit disaster, but this government has shown itself to be hopelessly ill-disciplined when it comes to budget repair.

In contrast, if elected, a Shorten Labor government will take budget repair seriously. We'll have a better plan to pay down debt. We have a plan to deliver bigger cumulative surpluses over the forward estimates. We'll put the budget on a more structurally sound footing with reforms to negative gearing—prospective only—capital gains tax, dividend imputation and trusts. These are difficult policies, tough policies, but they're appropriate in light of the Liberal deficit and the IMF warnings.

The second point raised in the member for Forde's motion refers to employment. While there has been an improvement in the unemployment rate, the underlying structural problems, like stubbornly high underemployment and stagnant wages growth, continue. The number of jobs created may have slightly increased, but the participation rate dropped by 0.24 per cent, so the number of people looking for work fell sharply. Particularly concerning is the youth unemployment rate, which is more than double the national average, at 11.4 per cent. Underemployment remains high, at more than one million Australians. So together there are 1.7 million Australians who want work or more work, but can't find it. For example, a report by Anglicare Australia reported that there are 111,000 entry level jobseekers, but only 26,000 jobs.

The motion from the member for Forde makes a leap of faith when it states that, 'wages can be expected to rise if economic growth remains strong'. 'How?' I ask the member for Forde, through the chair. Relying on rich corporations to share their wealth is nothing but delusional. Trickle-down economics has been comprehensively discredited by eminent economists across the world, yet the ATM government has continued to run their economic agenda with blind faith in this fiction of trickle-down economics. Giving tax cuts to the wealthy and large corporations and suppressing wages for everyone is A-OK by the Liberals, but not by sensible Australians. This is an agenda that will look after the top one per cent but not most people.

The motion also talks about the participation of the women in the workforce, but what it doesn't mention is the gender pay gap. Australian women effectively work for the first two months of every year for free, compared to their male counterparts. The gender pay gap is one of the most persistent forms of inequality in our economy, and the lifelong effects for women are felt long after they've left the workforce. Pay inequality drives a huge gap in women's superannuation. The fastest-growing group of people falling into homelessness are older single women. Yet this Morrison government won't do anything to address the gender pay gap or Australians suffering from insecure work, stagnant wages and skyrocketing cost-of-living pressures. Everything's going up except wages.

The third point the motion makes is calling on the government to remain 'resolute in its effective economic management to ensure funding for the essential services we need'. That's where they put it—right at the end. They talk about essential services. They give tax cuts to the big banks and tax cuts to the top end of town, but trickle-down economics is supposed to actually help most people. Those opposite are tone deaf when it comes to the egalitarian Australia we need.

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