Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very glad to speak on the appropriations bills and the government's budget on behalf of the people of Fremantle. I always feel proud and privileged to represent my community here on such an important matter. For those who are playing at home, Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2020-2021 and cognate bills are the means by which the government gets the money to pay for its programs. They're always important, even if they sound a bit boring. They've never been more important than they are right now in 2020, and there are two reasons for that. The first is because we're facing a global pandemic, a health crisis that, in turn, is having severe economic impacts. They're also important because, in response, the government is embarking on a massive program of borrowing and spending, the likes of which we have not seen in my lifetime, and the consequences of which will play out for decades.

The brutal reality is that you cannot borrow and spend this gargantuan quantity of money twice—you cannot—and so you have to get it right. I think most people, even at this early stage after the budget has been handed down, know that, unfortunately, it's not looking very good so far. It's not looking very good because the budget's falling short of the obvious tests that should apply. That is: will it meet the needs of the Australian community, especially those facing the most acute impacts and the sharpest disadvantage, and will it provide lasting benefits that will carry us through from the survival phase into the recovery? Will it shape a stronger and fairer Australia? Unfortunately, we already know that there are so many people in so many sectors that are not having their needs met, and there is absolutely nothing in the budget. I didn't have high expectations of the budget, but even I was taken by surprise that there is nothing that looks to the medium- or long-term needs of Australia. There is nothing that builds on the most important things, which are the things we share: public education; public health; public infrastructure, like transport and community infrastructure; our environment; and our biodiversity, which is in crisis and should be protected.

The Morrison budget, in response to the Morrison recession, comes at a time of crisis—not just the pandemic but the aftermath of Australia's first national climate change disaster, in the form of last summer's unprecedented bushfires; not just the challenges at home, here in Australia, but the challenges in our region and in our trading relationships. The budget should respond to those circumstances, and that's how the government will be judged. There are lots of ways in which a government can be judged. In the course of the debate, we've heard already, and we'll continue to hear, lots of frames or perspectives or rubrics that seek to establish the basis upon which the budget will be judged. Some of them might be a bit critical. That's what the government will say of us—that we're being hypercritical. You can be sure that some in the government will be ultra-self-serving. In fact, we heard a little bit of that just before.

One thing you can't do as a government is walk away from the standards you set for yourself. This government were elected in 2013 on the basis that they would face up to and phase down what they called a 'debt and deficit emergency'. That was pretty much the only thing that they said and they said it over and over again. Well, they doubled the national debt in this country before the pandemic. They presided over stagnant wages, falling productivity and weak growth, and they doubled the debt. That was before the pandemic occurred, and Australians know that. They will run a deficit in this year alone that is larger than the net debt they inherited in 2013. Despite the $35 'Back in Black' mugs, despite the linguistic time-travelling of the Prime Minister, who said that he and his government had delivered a budget surplus for next year, they have not delivered a single surplus, and tackling debt and deficit was their one purpose. That's the frame they chose for themselves in seeking election in 2013. That's the frame that they set for themselves at every step of the way and, by that standard, they have utterly failed. We came into this crisis with a weak and weakening economy, which will make dealing with the social and economic impacts of this crisis that much harder, but you won't hear that from this government and you won't hear it from speaker after speaker in this debate. The Treasurer, in question time, described it as a 'ripper' of a budget—a Jack the Ripper budget maybe. I heard the member for Fisher say that it was a 'sensational budget for all Australians'—every single one—

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