Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Disappointingly, they don't want to hear it. They don't want to listen to the truth. They're all leaving, including the member for Canning, who doesn't have a jacket. It's disappointing. The member for Hughes is sticking around—excellent. The member for Mackellar, too embarrassed from his appearance on the ABC yesterday, has decided to stick around. I'm very glad they're all sticking around.

Here is the truth—now they're walking away; the member for Mackellar is walking away—in the last hour the Prime Minister admitted that he did invite Mr Houston for lunch at the White House. No-one cares who the Prime Minister has lunch with. I certainly couldn't think of anything I care about less. What they do care about though is that we have a prime minister who cannot be straight with the Australian people. We have a prime minister who is so afraid of telling the truth that he makes up stories, talks about the Canberra bubble and parrots all sorts of nonsense instead of saying something simple like: 'Yes, I did invite Mr Houston for lunch.' That's all he needed to say. That was all the Prime Minister needed to say. Yet he was incapable of that. They all know that the Prime Minister has a problem with telling the truth, but I will say this from my limited experience in politics: it's not the cuts—it's the bleeding. It's not the lies—it's the cover-up. And they can continue. They can say it's a flesh wound. They can continue being loose with the truth over there, but it catches up with you eventually, as the Prime Minister found out today. Who knows why he decided that today was the day that he was going to make an announcement about how Mr Houston was invited to lunch? Maybe there were other reasons why the Prime Minister decided that.

But today, on these appropriation bills, I think it is important to restate the fact that we have all worked hard to get into this place. Every single member in this place no doubt has worked hard and has had their own unique journey. Government is special. To be given the gift of government is something that I know no-one on this side of the House takes lightly. We are desperate to try and get to that side of the House, because government is a great gift. And government is about doing great things. But you only have to look at the lack of legislative agenda from this government to know that they are not here to do great things. They are not here to outline a vision for this country. They are not here to outline the policy and visionary agenda that Australians so desperately need. They are not here to help with the issues that Australians are desperately calling out for. They are here just to get through the day, to write media releases, to use taxpayer funds for their own benefit. Instead of dealing with the bushfire crisis, they are here to put Liberal Party ads up on Facebook to get the donation button to the Liberal Party going. That's what they are here to do.

I thought that in this appropriation bills debate we would go through some of the things that they should be doing in using this incredible gift of government. First of all, they don't have a plan to tackle climate change. They don't have a plan to reduce our emissions. They are becoming more and more of an outlier. The Australian economy is missing out on all of the international changes that are happening throughout Asia, throughout Europe, throughout the Americas. We are missing out on the economic opportunities of climate change because Scott Morrison and the flat-earthers in his party room are ideologically opposed to doing something about climate change. I'm glad the member for Hughes is in the chamber, because I will get to him shortly.

No government in this country is refusing to commit to net zero emissions—except for one. All the states and territories have committed to net zero emissions by 2050, including countries around the world—those radical countries like the United Kingdom, France, Germany and New Zealand—all of those radical countries who have signed up to international agreements to get the planet to net zero emissions by 2050. But that also means that that's where all the economic investment is. That's where all the money is going. The money is not going into new coal fired power generation, except for in Liberal and National parties. The only people trying to slow down the Australian economy, to slow down the economic opportunity, are the slow-movers on that side of the House.

It's no wonder they don't have a plan to tackle climate change. Let's go through some of the ethereal thinkers on that side of the House. The member for New England: the man who is ambitious, who is still chipping away at the leadership of the National Party. He spent his summer with his selfie camera in his field, talking to clouds, thinking that climate change is going to miraculously be fixed by the clouds themselves. He showed how difficult things are for him. The member for Hughes is in the chamber. He wants to put messages in schools saying that climate change is a hoax. That's what the member for Hughes wants. He wants to say to our schoolkids—who are feeling anxious, who just want a little bit of hope and who just want a little bit of a message from our leaders to say, 'We recognise there's a problem and we are going to be a part of the solution'—that climate change is a hoax. I know that there are members on that side, including those in the chamber today, who take this problem seriously, who want to be part of the solution and who are, quite frankly, embarrassed by the sorts of views being espoused by the member for Hughes.

The member for Dawson says, 'Climate change is like a science fiction, and accused the UN of inventing a conspiracy to inflate it. Well, that's going to help people and help lower our emissions. Senator McMahon said, 'Climate action would be akin to going back and living in huts without electricity.' Senator Molan doesn't believe members should be considering evidence or science when making up their mind about climate change. I mean, of all the things to ignore when forming opinions, I would say evidence would be on very bottom of that list. Evidence is the absolute thing we need to be looking at when tackling this issue. Science is what we should be looking at when tackling this issue. But apparently Senator Molan, who is absolutely pivotal in drawing up the climate plans of those opposite, says, 'Nope; we shouldn't be looking at evidence when talking about climate change.'

It's been a fruitful Senate estimates over the last few days over in the other place. Senator Rennick, during estimates, accused the Bureau of Meteorology of faking weather data. This would be funny if it was an independent kooky senator, but this is a member of the government. This is a member of the Liberal-National coalition. And if it was just one, I'd say, 'It's just one; every family has the uncle that you try to avoid at the family reunions—so be it. I understand; I've been to those family reunions too.' But there is an organised army group over there who are adamant that this country should not tackle climate change.

We as a nation should be at the forefront. We have had a summer of devastating bushfires. We should be leading the international calls and action. We should be the ones who are at the forefront of tackling climate change, and because of the dinosaurs over there we are missing out on all of the economic opportunities. They scoffed when we came out with the idea of 50 per cent new electric vehicles by 2030. If we had actually implemented that policy, it would have meant that around 15 per cent of cars by 2030 would have been electric—and 85 per cent of the cars would still have had combustible engines. We would have potentially had a manufacturing industry. We would have had more research and developers. We would have had auto-electrical engineers. Our country would have had the economic stimulus of having a new industry and a new market. But they on that side of the House were just looking at ways to combat Labor.

They don't have a plan to tackle housing. Housing affordability in this country is one of the most serious issues confronting Australians. There is a spectrum of people across it, whether it be people who need social housing—the government's not building anywhere near enough social housing; or whether it is affordable housing—we need to be building around 20,000 affordable homes per year. The government is absolutely nowhere. I acknowledge that there is some housing funds happening at the moment through the NHFIC. It's just over a thousand homes a year. That's better than nothing but it is absolutely nowhere near where we should be.

Then there are the other people who are my age—young people—who want to try to get into the housing market, and this government is doing the absolute bare minimum to try to help them. I recognise that the first home buyers scheme is better than nothing. We supported that measure. Thirty years ago, six out of 10 young Australians my age were able to get into the housing market. Now that number is less than four—and it is plummeting. It is becoming harder and harder for young people to get into the housing market. What are the government doing about it? Nothing. People are finding it harder to accumulate assets and finding it harder to achieve financial security—and what are the government doing about it? Nothing.

That bring us to the economy. The economy was stagnating before the bushfire crisis, before coronavirus. Wages growth was stagnating. Underemployment was a massive issue, as was insecure work. Productivity was down, as was retail. You only have to walk down any of the wonderful high streets in my electorate and, I'm sure, in many others to see that retailers are struggling in this country. Before today the RBA had lowered interest rates to record low levels, and now they've been lowered even further again.

Instead of acting on this—instead of acting on the economic stimulus that the Labor Party has been constructively been calling for for months—the government has done nothing. The government is watching the economy grind to a halt and now, when they are facing even further challenges, what else are they doing? Nothing. There's no further investment. They haven't brought forward tax cuts. They haven't brought forward infrastructure investment. Their $2 billion bushfire program that the Prime Minister announced apparently is only a notional fund. It's an idea. It may happen. It hasn't yet. And yet the Prime Minister is happy to wave around a media release saying that they're the ones helping bushfire victims. They're not. They are not helping bushfire victims. Less than $200 million has been rolled out across the entire country. Communities are hurting. People are struggling to get ahead. Businesses are struggling. And yet they haven't even set up their fund that the Prime Minister announced. It's only in the 'notional' stages? This is a government that doesn't like governing.

There are two other things before I wrap up—and I could go on. We haven't even got to the sports rorts stuff, on which the Prime Minister is completely void of any accountability. The two areas that are also being hurt right now include the ABC. We saw the AAP today announce they were going to be shutting their doors, which is obviously devastating not just for the workers and the journalists there but also for our democracy. They are a fine institution.

But the ABC has been squeezed consecutively year in, year out by this government. The ABC is vital not just to our democracy but for work over the summer, reaching out to affected communities to make sure that people are safe and that messages are getting to them. And what's the government's response? We're going to cut funding to the ABC again. We're going to freeze the indexation. And now we're hearing that the government is pressuring the ABC to sell off their assets, including in my electorate, in Southbank, to move to another new home. Not content on cutting funding, they now want to make the ABC sell off their headquarters.

To make it worse, there is the temerity of those opposite. It was revealed in estimates today that, because they were so angry with the ABC holding them to account over their dodgy sports rorts, the government sent a letter to the managing director of the ABC, complaining about the coverage that they got on the sports rorts. They should hang their heads in shame, they should stop cutting the ABC and they should start acting like a government.

(Quorum formed)

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