Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Financial Services) Share this | Hansard source

The parliament recently paid tribute to one of Australia's greatest Prime Ministers, Bob Hawke. Bob Hawke loved Australia and Australians loved Hawkey. One of the reasons that they loved Bob Hawke was that he united Australians, brought us together and gave us hope. In fact, his '83 election campaign slogan was 'Bringing Australians together', and that is exactly what Bob Hawke did. As a result, Australians felt confident and proud. He united our nation and gave Australians hope.

That's in stark contrast to the approach of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government, which has been governing based on fear and division, setting Australians against each other. How many times have you heard this Prime Minister say, in respect of a piece of legislation or a policy, 'Whose side are you on?' trying to divide Australia and set Australians against each other? There's been not one piece of positive reform or legislation or plan to deal with the huge challenges facing us as a nation at the moment. Those opposite are more interested in wedging the Labor Party and playing politics in this place than in governing in the interests of all Australians.

This is a government that is self-obsessed and asleep at the wheel. You only need look at its approach to energy policy to see that that is a fact. After six years—six years—in government, those opposite still do not have a national energy policy. I had to laugh recently when the member for Hughes was asked in the media why the government doesn't have a national energy policy. His response was, 'Because the Labor Party is promoting renewable energy.' Can you believe it? After six years, they are still blaming the Labor Party for the fact that they cannot get their act together and they cannot end this war between the flat-earthers—the climate change deniers, which are in the majority in this government—and those that are more moderate over whether or not climate change is real and whether we should be reducing emissions in our economy.

They have had six different energy policies. We all remember the clean energy target, mark 1 and mark 2. They hit the fence pretty quick after Tony Abbott, the former member for Warringah, started advocating against them. Then we had the National Energy Guarantee, mark 1 and mark 2. I'll give the former Prime Minister his credit—he actually got the National Energy Guarantee through the coalition party room. They agreed to it. So instead of getting rid of the policy, they got rid of the Prime Minister. That's how unbelieving they are about climate change: they got rid of the Prime Minister! Then 'the big stick' was introduced—that hit the fence as well. And now they've come up with a divestment power, which they still haven't brought to the parliament. After six years there's still no energy policy, and it's Australian families, pensioners and small businesses that have paid the price for the division and chaos of this government, through skyrocketing electricity prices.

We have an economy that is floundering under this government's watch, with the slowest economic growth since the global financial crisis and the longest per-capita recession since 1982. Wages and incomes aren't growing at all and are growing eight times slower than profits. We've got rising unemployment and youth unemployment, five years of weak productivity growth, weak household spending, falling consumer confidence and shockingly bad business conditions. If you go down any main street of any town in Australia and ask those small businesses how they're feeling about business conditions at the moment, the answer will always come back that they've never felt so bad. The saddest indictment on this government is that living standards for Australians have not been growing as fast as they were under a Labor government. And the largest indictment of all—and this says everything about this government's management of our economy: the Australian economy was the eighth-fastest-growing economy in the OECD in 2013; as a result of this government's mismanagement, at this point in time Australia is the 20th-fastest-growing economy in the OECD. We've fallen from eighth under the Labor Party to 20th under this government. Within every element of Australian society, people are struggling—young Australians, pensioners, families, small businesses, people with a disability, the unemployed and those waiting for aged-care places. The only people that have been doing well are those in big business. And is it any wonder that those opposite voted 26 times against a banking royal commission, because we know whose side they are on. Despite the shock and outrage that Australians saw, regarding the royal commission, not one piece of legislation to implement the royal commission recommendations has been brought into this parliament. It says everything about this government. They are more interested in dividing and wedging the Labor Party, and dividing based on fear and chaos, than in governing in the interests of all Australians.

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