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

I'm going to begin with a bit advice for the member for Brisbane: when you're debating, you're meant to argue against the argument that is being put by those opposite. You're not meant to make the argument for those people who have been arguing against you. You just spent the whole of your speech arguing about what Labor's been doing, exactly making the point made by the member for Rankin that your government has no plan whatsoever and that all you are interested in is going through Labor Party transcripts and arguing about what the Labor Party has done, rather than developing a plan for this nation. The second bit of advice for the member for Brisbane is: you wouldn't criticise the member for Rankin for being the former chief of staff to the former Treasurer when you were the former chief of staff to none other than Peter Dutton—the guru on leadership challenges in the Australian parliament. I don't think it helps your argument.

The Australian people are working the hardest that they ever have done, but they feel like they're going backwards. Australian farmers are dealing with one of the worst droughts in history. Australian workers are falling further behind, with their wages not keeping up with the pace of the cost of living. Small businesses have been devastated by the falls in consumption and the business confidence slumps that we've seen in recent times. Businesses simply aren't investing in growth anymore, because of the uncertainty that's being created by this government around energy policy and because of their lack of a plan for growth.

There is a malaise in productivity in this country, and, instead of talking about capital deepening, we are actually in a situation where we have capital shallowing in Australia. Pensioners and seniors are really struggling with low interest rates, the lowest that they've ever been, and dealing with high electricity prices. To put it as a sentence, Australia is in a bad way. Australia is in a bad way at the moment, and the Morrison government aren't listening and don't care. That's the thing that hurts the Australian people the most: they do not care. They won the election and went on holidays. They're asleep at the wheel and don't have a plan to assist the Australian public and the economy—to get out of the rut that they're in.

The Prime Minister said in question time: 'Everything's okay. Everything's all right. We should stay cool and calm.' Let me tell you, the young man that I met in Pagewood last week when I was doing a bit of doorknocking who just lost his job is not cool and calm at the moment. In fact, he's quite worried about how he's going to pay the rent and make ends meet. In Hillsdale last week, the member for Maribyrnong and I met with parents of children with profound disability who are dealing with NDIS problems because the Morrison government has underspent on the NDIS by $4 billion and has a cap on staff within this particular scheme. It's probably one of the most immoral policy stances that I've seen in my time in this parliament. Let me tell you, they're not cool and calm. They're not cool and calm at all. In fact, they're quite angry about the way that this government is managing a disability system that was put in place to help their kids, not make life worse for them. That anger turns to rage when they ring up the National Disability Insurance Agency and they're told by the staff over the phone, 'Don't you know that this is taxpayers' dollars that you're asking for?' What an insult to those parents who are dealing with kids with disabilities and trying to get help from the NDIS. Let me tell you that the retiree I spoke to in Maroubra who, because most of his savings are in cash, is struggling with low interest rates is not cool and calm. In fact, he's quite worried about his future and whether or not he is going to have to drop onto the age pension because he's not making his savings grow whatsoever.

These situations are not peculiar to my electorate; they are happening across the country. Yet this government does not have a plan to assist these Australians, all over this country, who are struggling. They're worried, they're frustrated and they have lost faith in this government to deal with the challenges of this economy. There's a Prime Minister who is not listening and who has no plan to fix the economy and turn things around. We saw that overnight, with the IMF again downgrading Australia's growth forecast. It is a warning to the Australian government to fix the issues with the Australian economy at the moment, to provide some stimulus, to get wages growing again and to get the economy growing again. But, once again, this Morrison government is not listening. It is asleep at the wheel.

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