Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

Sorry, Deputy Speaker; I will return to my remarks. Thank you for your guidance. I shouldn't have been provoked.

Of course, there is the skills guarantee. Again, it's a building block to the sort of workforce that can underpin a high-wage, high-skill, future oriented economy. Another thing that would do that is our rewiring the nation initiative—again, a fundamental reshaping of our energy network, recognising the differences in technology and the differences in need that should underpin our recovery, including for manufacturing of course.

The last element I want to touch on in the budget reply is the opposition's commitment to social housing. There's no better way, as just about every economist has said, to kickstart a jobs boom in the short term and to deliver a much-needed social dividend in the medium term. On the other hand, we have the Prime Minister, who simply says, when so many Australians are out of work and so many more are likely to be out of work, if you are good at your job, you'll get a job.

An opposition member: A disgrace!

Yes, it's a disgrace and it's extraordinary hubris—and hubris is always followed by nemesis, I remind members opposite.

In terms of my electorate, the electorate of Scullin, the budget papers revealed very little other than in the negative, such as the impact of cuts to JobKeeper; particularly the impact which we've already seen on the universities, which are such important employers—La Trobe and RMIT; and the impact we've seen of the cuts to JobSeeker. There's a tiny amount of money for the E6, but that really is it. That's it. There's nothing for the northern suburbs of Melbourne. And I remember the excitement in the communities that greeted the talk by the minister for cities of the North and West Melbourne City Deal. Enormous work has gone into realising what the deal could be, but the federal government is not engaging with this conversation at all. It's just not engaging at all. The groups that have come together with the Northern Horizons' vision for infrastructure, the people who've been thinking about the manufacturing opportunities in food are not getting the support they need and deserve from the federal government. They're not paying attention. There is no evidence of any plan for local jobs.

When I think about the budget and Scullin, I think about some of the things that took place over the pandemic that have stayed with me as a local member—in particular, the tragedies that I saw at the Epping Gardens Aged Care Facility. This is an exemplar of how we should not treat vulnerable older Australians. What they are entitled to is so much more dignity and so much more support. We've got a way to go in terms of the royal commission, but its findings so far should have delivered more to those people and their families.

In my portfolio areas, in particular of cities and urban infrastructure, we see a budget which underdelivers, building on a long record of overpromising and underdelivering when it comes to infrastructure from this government.

In multicultural affairs, this budget does not sufficiently address the needs of migrant and CALD communities, continuing a trend through the pandemic. There are some budget measures which relate to multicultural affairs that are worthy in the social cohesion space, and I acknowledge that. I also acknowledge the reforms that have been announced to the AMEP program, but what we are seeing here is a government that's much better at talking at multicultural communities than listening to them. We see that in the announcements over the increase in the partner visa intake for the next year in particular and in the introduction of what was initially described as an English language test, a discriminatory test, with various justifications, which demonstrate that this is policymaking on the run.

That really sums up this budget and this government in a nutshell: policymaking on the run. The Treasurer, like the Prime Minister, is so much more interested in the politics of the moment than building a vision for the future. Everything is about the announcement, not about the delivery. On that, we have a great opportunity here. At the moment, trust in politics is going up for the first time in decades, but that's at risk because of a litany of scandals and the failure of the government to introduce a national integrity commission. If they can change one thing about their direction, they should commit to that now.

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