Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Liberals are now in their seventh year in government. The economy is floundering, locals in my electorate of Dunkley are struggling and the government has no plan to turn anything around. Australia's economy is growing at its slowest pace since the global financial crisis, which those on the other side of the chamber seem to want to pretend never occurred. They pretend that Labor didn't steer us through it, but we know that we did. Wages have stagnated. Almost two million Australians are looking for work or for more work. If you want to meet some of those Australians, come to Frankston and speak to some real workers who are struggling to look after their families. Living standards and productivity are going backwards. It seems that weak growth and failing confidence are the price we pay for a government which has a political strategy—smear and slur—but no plan for our economy. One fact stands out above all others: real household median income, the measure that is most commonly used to talk about and assess overall living standards, is lower today than it was in 2013. What an abysmal policy failure!

The Prime Minister and the Treasurer have a populist political strategy. They like to come into this chamber and do a lot of yelling, but what do they have that resembles an economic plan for the people in my community who come to my office to ask for help to buy food to put on the table for their children? What do they have for people in my electorate? Nothing. They won an election without any policies. They've had six months since that election to do something and they haven't done anything to have a comprehensive economic plan. We need a plan to turn the economy around and we need it now.

The Reserve Bank have told us that they can't do all the heavy lifting. The RBA, the IMF and the OECD have all downgraded their forecasts for Australia's economic growth, but this Liberal government has chosen to ignore all of these warnings from economists. You don't have to listen to Labor if you don't want to—it seems your ears are blocked—but listen to the economists and listen to the experts. Oh, that's right; experts aren't very popular over there at the moment! This government stubbornly refuses to act, but it's time to act. Use MYEFO. Don't just update forecasts; outline an economic plan. Here are some options. Genuinely bring forward infrastructure projects. In my electorate the government promised the electrification of Baxter at the last election. They put out flyers saying that they were going to build it. That wasn't mentioned in Morrison's recent 'great infrastructure announcement adventure' around the country. Put your money where your mouth is and fund it. Bring forward stage 2 of the tax cuts and boost our middle class. Better yet, from a stimulus perspective—and a social justice perspective—increase Newstart to kickstart retail. Help people to be able to afford to live while they're looking for work. And how about you have a plan, a real plan, to boost wages rather than returning to Work Choices.

Just while I'm talking about IR, how many times in the last few weeks have we heard government ministers at the dispatch box, trying to claim credit for the Fair Work Commission increasing the minimum wage, despite the Liberal government putting in submissions saying it shouldn't be increased? And yet, when we mention the cuts to penalty rates, they say, 'No, the Fair Work Commission is independent; we're not responsible for that.' This Liberal government couldn't possibly come into this place and do its job and vote for legislation that would restore penalty rates. You want to take credit for something the Fair Work Commission does, but you just walk away and won't restore penalty rates, saying, 'They're independent.' What hypocrites.

Finally, if you want to do something as part of an economic plan that will actually achieve something, take some action on climate change. Have a real national energy policy. Support job creation in renewable energy and the jobs of the future. I think the last Liberal who said the word 'innovation' was Malcolm Turnbull. How about, government, investing in innovation? Stop cutting funds to the CSIRO. Stop attacking scientists. Stop ignoring the jobs of the future. Invest in our community— (Time expired)

See this speech in context