Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

Every question in question time today from the opposition went to the gap between the announcements from this government and the delivery, and we've worked something out: whether it's aged care, whether it's JobKeeper, whether it's debt and deficit or whether it's superannuation, if there's something that you really don't want to happen how do you make sure something won't happen? You get the Prime Minister to announce it, if you're really worried about something. I imagine this is a message to lobbyists all around the country who are working with a department towards an announcement: if at any moment the public servants say to you, 'Oh, we could get the Prime Minister to announce this,' stop it. Run a mile. Don't let it happen, because this is what happens in every instance. They don't seem to understand. Normally parliamentary debate goes back and forth as to whether or not the right programs have been announced, but here, with this government and with this Prime Minister, ever since he said, 'I'm ambitious for him,' we've really understood the difference between what he announces and what he does within a couple of days.

The Treasurer today was asked a question, and he thought he was boasting. It's really interesting when someone's asked about a gap between what you announce and what you do and he stands up and says, 'Well, let me show you the numbers.' When he was asked, 'You promised $314 billion in economic support; what have you done?' the numbers that he reported to the parliament added up to just over a quarter of the announcement.

Then we had another dixer from them today—it wasn't just our questions that were making this case; it was in their dixers as well—where they stood up and boasted that there would now be an additional $30 billion for JobKeeper, taking it to $101 billion. So they've added $30 billion, and it's still $30 billion less than what they originally announced. They originally announced that they would help six million Australians. They then decided to design the rules to make sure that six million Australians were not eligible. They cut out a million casuals, they cut out the visa workers, they cut out local government, they cut out arts and entertainment workers, they cut out aviation workers and they cut out people who work at universities. Then they said: 'Oh, isn't this great? We don't need to spend as much money as we thought we did.' They gave hope to six million Australians, and they let down half that number. It's a bit late now to be boasting that somehow they're adding extra support when it's still less than the original announcement. That gap is the story that is told in unemployment queues around Australia. Yesterday we had the Prime Minister boasting that aged care apparently is not a real problem at the moment. Why do we know it's not a problem? Because he could rattle off 14 announcements. If you've got your list of announcements and we still find somebody with ants crawling in an open wound, that tells the story of neglect. That tells the story of the gap between announcement and delivery.

We heard the same when they thought they had got off scot-free on the Ruby Princess inquiry from New South Wales. They said, 'Oh, no, we've been told that we weren't in fact responsible; it was the state government.' But here is the problem: the problem was that they had actually announced that they were going to take responsibility. The Prime Minister had stood up and announced that the cruise ships would be placed 'directly under the command of the Australian Border Force.' The only reason they did okay in that royal commission was because they never delivered on what they announced. The only reason it wasn't their responsibility was because they hadn't done what they said they would do, which is going to lead us to what will be one of the defining broken promises of this government, because we all know where they are headed on superannuation. We all know exactly what's happening on superannuation. We know it's going to be the attack on retirees in all three ways: freezing the pension; stuffing up aged care; and attacking superannuation. Of course, we know they're going to claw back on superannuation. How do we know this? Because in November 2018 the Prime Minister announced they wouldn't.

In November 2018, the Prime Minister made an announcement. He said: 'No, no, no, it's all legislated. It is going to go up to 12 per cent. Working people will get their money.' Well, they won't. The backbench started the drum beat. We know it's nothing to do with the pandemic. They've been in for seven years. This was meant to be coming in all of that time, and working Australians haven't been getting the money. And they have always argued, 'Oh, yes, but, if you get the superannuation increase, then you miss out on the pay rise.' Well, for the life of this government, they haven't been getting a pay rise or a superannuation increase, and that has been the lived experience of working Australians.

Yesterday, we had a fine first speech from the new member for Eden-Monaro. Let's not forget the big story of Kristy McBain, the member for Eden-Monaro, becoming a national figure by standing up to this government and saying, 'We need support for bushfire-ravaged communities.' When they needed support, what did the government give them instead? It gave them an announcement. It announced on 11 May a $650 million boost for bushfire recovery. The Treasurer announced it. Before, I was critical that it was only about a quarter of what they announced. Well, for bushfire recovery, 1½ per cent of what they announced has been spent.

Bushfire recovery is where people are dealing with having lost everything not just in what they're going through, personally but in what entire communities are going through. Of all the areas for there to be a gap between announcement and delivery, I've got to say that is one of the most offensive. Don't announce $650 million if you have no intention of spending it. Don't announce that you're going to help six million Australians with a wage subsidy if you only have the intention of helping half that number. Don't announce that you've got 14 new announcements on aged care if we're then going to get royal commission reports titled, Neglect. Don't announce that the most important thing in fighting the coronavirus is going to be for everyone to download the app and then find out after all this time it has helped us trace contact on 14 occasions.

You get millions of Australians following the advice of the Prime Minister. Why do they follow the advice? Well, he made the announcement. He told us this was what we had to do. Download the app. That's right, get out from under the doona and all you have to do is keep your distance, wash your hands and download the app. They don't tend to run that run of three anymore. I don't know what happened to the app, but it certainly didn't do any of the things that were in the announcement. Then there were the responses we had today from the Minister for Health to the shadow minister for health. There was one thing that he would not say when he was saying: 'It's an agreement. It's a deal.' He wouldn't say how many vaccines are now guaranteed for Australia, because the answer is zero.

The Treasurer would hide behind words and hide behind announcements, but, once again, the delivery was where it fell short. I guess we know this from a mob that, when they were in opposition, promised that every single budget from the time they came into office would be a surplus budget. We've now been here for a seven-year-old government—that, at the next election, are going to ask to be a 12-year-old government—and never will they once have turned a surplus budget. They had doubled the debt before anyone had heard of coronavirus, so don't hide behind the virus in terms of this. The thing that we know—it's not just that they overpromise and underdeliver. No, no—it's not even as complicated as that. They make announcements to avoid doing anything, because all they care about is the marketing. I tell you what: people out there don't live in a marketing world. People live with a government that either delivers or it doesn't, and we have, for seven long years now, a government that fails to deliver.

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