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

These are of course the appropriation bills, which seek appropriations from the budget for the ordinary course of delivering government throughout Australia. Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2019-2020 relates to the ordinary annual government services—that is, by continuing expenditure for government on services, to fund existing policies—and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2019-2020 seeks appropriations for funding of new expenses as well as payments to the states and territories.

The remarkable thing about this government is that, despite the fact that they have been in office for close to seven years now, they still do not have an economic plan for this country. We've been through one of the most tumultuous economic periods in the nation's history, with growth still not having recovered to trend rates from the global financial crisis. We've had the trade war that's occurred between the United States and China that has had a dramatic effect on supply chains for Australian businesses and directly on our economy.

Over the summer we saw just how ill-prepared this government was for the bushfire crisis that affected nearly all states and territories throughout the country and resulted in 33 Australians losing their lives and countless numbers of properties being destroyed, and, despite this, we've still got those on the opposite side who deny that climate change science is real and are still fighting this war against a decent climate change policy in this country.

Now all of this is being compounded by the coronavirus. We've been pointing out that this government's economic management was bad prior to the coronavirus. The coronavirus is only going to make it worse and much more difficult for many Australians, because this government, for the last seven years, has not had an economic plan for this nation, and the Australian people are suffering and they're beginning to ask the question: 'What is the point of the Morrison government? What have they done in terms of economic management that has moved our nation forward—that has stimulated business investment, productivity and growth?' And the answer is: 'Nothing.' The country is in an economic malaise. People are really struggling. And this government just doesn't get it—they do not understand just how much working Australians and small business people and pensioners are struggling at the moment.

We've had growth below trend for many, many years and the IMF and the RBA are continuing to downgrade Australia's economic growth forecast for the coming financial year. The incomes of Australians haven't been increasing. Wages have been stubbornly stuck at that two per cent level and below for the last five years. And it has all been compounded by this government through their support for cuts to penalty rates in awards. So wages haven't been increasing, which means that families have been struggling, and this government has gone and made it worse by supporting cuts to some of the lowest paid workers in the country. Those workers are actually having the amount of money that they take home each week in their pay packets cut because this government supports cutting penalty rates in the hospitality and service sector awards for people who work on weekends. That says everything about the government's approach to economic management and trying to stimulate growth in our economy.

Household debt in Australia is at record levels. We have one of the highest levels of household debt in the OECD. I think we are second in the OECD in terms of the proportion of household debt that the average family in Australia is carrying compared to their income and their assets. In fact, the level of households that are overindebted—this is something that the ABS measures every few years—has been increasing under this government, and that is the level of debt compared to assets and income.

So we've got low wages and increasing debt, and the result is that Australian families are really, really struggling. And they're cutting back on spending as a result. They're cutting back on that discretionary spending that is so important for consumption and small business in our economy. Families are just spending on the basics. They're just spending enough to get by, on the necessities: transport, housing, education and childcare.

That is having a dramatic effect on consumption. Ask any small business in any main town or suburb throughout the country how they are doing under the Morrison government and they will tell you how badly they are struggling. We are seeing that reflected in our national accounts, with very low consumption figures for the last five or six years. Because of that, business investment is falling. Businesses aren't investing in new capital, new equipment, more employees and new technology to increase productivity, reduce costs and create economies of scale.

That's been reflected in the business growth figures that are published regularly by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Business investment as a share of nominal GDP has fallen under this government. There was 17 per cent growth in business investment compared to nominal GDP in 2013. It has fallen to 11 per cent under this government. This is the government that claims to be pro-business! This government claims to be for capital deepening, for ensuring we are improving business investment in this country. But we've seen a reduction in business investment under this government. It says everything about their approach to economic management.

And that, of course, is affecting productivity. It is having an effect on the productivity of the nation and our ability to efficiently use resources to produce income. For the first time in decades, labour productivity in this country has fallen. In the last financial year, labour productivity fell by 0.2 per cent. To put that in context, it means workers produced less in the last financial year than in the previous financial year. That is having a dramatic effect on businesses and growth in our economy.

Ever since we started recording labour productivity in Australia, it has always increased. Labour productivity in Australia has always grown—but not under the Morrison government; it is now falling. That is a complete demonstration of what a bad economic manager this government really is. It is extraordinarily bad, to the point that it is the first time this has happened since we started measuring labour productivity in the 1970s. But not only that, labour productivity growth has been slowing down since 2013. Since this government was elected, it has been slowing down. And it's not only in the space of labour productivity; it's also in overall productivity, particularly relating to capital deepening or investment in new technology and machinery that will grow our economy into the future.

The classic case of this is this government's approach to telecommunications and, specifically, the National Broadband Network. If you want a policy that highlights just how moribund and bad this government is when it comes to infrastructure and economics, look no further than the National Broadband Network. The former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, promised that his new approach to the National Broadband Network—and let's not forget that, when they got elected, they said they were ditching Labor's policy of fibre-optic cable to every single household and business throughout the country and going with a multimedia mix of new technology; and that would involve fibre to the node connecting to the copper wire and also the HFC network, the overhead wires that run through many suburbs throughout the country. As a result of that the former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said the cost would be reduced. They promised that the NBN rollout would cost $29.5 billion. Well, have a guess how much it has actually cost. It has cost $51 billion! They've doubled the cost of the NBN through their multitechnology approach and we have inferior technology that doesn't work. That's how good they are at managing infrastructure projects and economics!

It doesn't end there, because Malcolm Turnbull also promised minimum speeds of 25 megabits per second by 2020 for everyone throughout the country. Well, there are plenty of households in the electorate that I represent that are still waiting for that knock on the door and that letter in the mailbox from the NBN to say that they're going to roll out in their street. The rollout is four years behind schedule. It shows how completely moribund and hopeless this government is when it comes to managing infrastructure projects—double the cost to $51 billion and four years behind schedule. What makes it worse is that the people in rural and regional areas are the ones that are really suffering. Is it any wonder the National Party is under such electoral pressure, because they are a complete disaster in coalition with this Morrison government when it comes to the provision of infrastructure in rural and regional areas.

The HFC rollout that Malcolm Turnbull promised would be the saviour and reduce cost is so bad that they stopped the rollout. They stopped it. They said, 'We can't put businesses and households through this anymore because it simply doesn't work.' Thank you, Malcolm Turnbull, for what you've done to telecommunications in this country! Thank you, Scott Morrison, for completely stuffing Australia's telecommunications network through the NBN!

The results speak for themselves. Some may say that I'm taking a partisan approach to this, but you only need look objectively at what the international rankings of internet speeds say about Australia to see just how bad this government is and how much they've stuffed up the NBN rollout. Australia has now fallen to 68th in the world when it comes to global rankings of internet speeds. Over the last year we've fallen from 62nd to 68th—just in one year. That fall has occurred every year since this government took office and took over the management of the National Broadband Network rollout. In terms of the OECD, we rank 32nd out of 35 nations when it comes to internet speeds. There are developing countries in this world that have higher internet speeds than we do here in Australia. That is the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government's legacy when it comes to managing infrastructure projects, particularly the National Broadband Network under this government.

We all know that it's not only the NBN that infrastructure investment has stalled in. For many years now the RBA Governor has been saying if you want to get growth going again, if you want to stimulate the economy, this government needs to invest in infrastructure projects. They often talk about dams on that all side of the chamber and how we should be building dams to make sure that we're conserving our water resources. They've been in government for seven years and they haven't started one! They haven't even got to the architecture stage of planning one. They are unbelievable how much they mislead the Australian public. And now they want the government to put taxpayers' dollars into building coal-fired power stations in Queensland, believe it or not, just to appease that mad lunatic fringe they have in their party that don't believe in climate change and believe that we should be promoting more coal in Australia. They want the government to underwrite to the tune of $17 billion because no-one in the private sector will touch a coal-fired power station with a ten-foot pole. For good reason: it's becoming outdated technology, and in a few years renewable energy will be cheaper to produce than coal fired power. But no! Those in the National Party want this government to underwrite to the tune of $17 billion a study into coal fired power. That is their infrastructure plan for this country. Is it any wonder that the place is in such a mess and Australians are struggling?

This is their record: low growth, low wages, businesses struggling, businesses not investing, falling labour productivity, one of the worst telecommunication systems in the country and no plan from this government. In fact, the only plan that they had was tax cuts for businesses. And how has that gone for the average Australian? They promised if they cut corporate taxes that that would feed through into wages. What's happened? Wages haven't increased at all; the average worker hasn't seen it in their pay packet one bit. You need only go and ask the average family: how are the tax cuts coming through to you in wages? They're not. But what's happened to company profits? They're up by 10 per cent. They've grown by 10 per cent since the tax cuts were introduced. It hasn't gone into wages; it's gone into company profits. It says everything about this government and their economic management. They are hopeless when it comes to economic management and hopeless when it comes to infrastructure.

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