Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The problem that Australia is facing today, the biggest problem that we are facing today, is that we have a prime minister who sees every economic challenge as a marketing problem, and every human problem as a political problem. That is not good enough. We've got a prime minister who is always there for the photo op, always there for the big announcement, but, whenever responsibility needs to be taken for anything, this guy vanishes; he is nowhere to be seen. It's always somebody else's responsibility. Maybe he's blaming his staff, maybe he's blaming the states, but it's never this Prime Minister's responsibility.

And it's not as if we don't have some challenges, because we most certainly do. The minister has just said we're in uncharted waters. Well, yes, indeed we are. We are in uncharted waters and, unfortunately, we've got the crew from Gilligan's Island running the boat. This is a bloke who has not got a clue about what we're going to do with the 1.5 million Australians who are either out of work or are looking for work—and that number is going to be added to by over 100,000 in a few weeks time.

What is the plan? What is the idea? What is this government's great big plan to deal with that challenge, with that human challenge? 'We're going to cut your wages. We're going to cut your superannuation. We're going to cut your income support.' And we've heard this falsity that's being peddled that there are plenty of jobs out there but people won't take them. What is the ratio of people seeking a job to jobs? There are between 10 and 15 people looking for a job for every job vacancy in this country—and somehow that mob over there want to blame the people who can't find a job. Their great big plan is a letter-writing campaign. 'I know the way we're going to fix this. We'll cut your income support and make you write 20 letters every month to an employer who hasn't got a job available or has a job you don't have the skills to fill.' Their great big plan for the economic challenge is a letter-writing campaign. These guys are a joke.

Business investment is coming back, the minister just told us. Business is confident and investment's coming back. Memo to the minister: business investment is at a 25-year low. Businesses have worked you lot out. You haven't got a plan. You haven't got a clue what to do. Once the press release is done and the cameras have vanished, you guys are clueless. You're onto the next thing—cut superannuation, cut income support, roll back the recommendations of the royal commission. If there were ever a time that we should be learning from the lessons of the past and ensuring that our banks and our finance companies are acting responsibly, it is right now, when we're trying to drag ourselves out of an economic recession. But your big plan is to roll back the very first recommendation of the Hayne royal commission. It's not like it was a big obligation: banks must lend responsibly. But somehow your answer to the economic recession, your answer to the lowest level of business investment in over 45 years, is easy credit, cheap credit and relaxing lending standards. We do not need a crystal ball to work out what will happen here. You need a history book. Look at what happened over the last 10 years, when relaxed lending standards led to reckless lending, with farmers and businesses losing their businesses, their houses and their properties. This is their big plan for the future of the economy.

They went to the last election saying they had a better deal for mum-and-dad investors—that they were going to stand up for the interests of mum-and-dad investors. Remember that? There wouldn't be a member in this place who didn't receive an email from this mob, saying that they were going to protect the interests of mum-and-dad investors. But this week we have a bill before the Senate which gives permission to directors to pull the wool over the eyes of mum-and-dad investors. They don't have to tell their mum-and-dad investors the material effects of what's going on inside the businesses that they are running. This mob pretend they're running the economy in the interests of business, but they haven't got a clue. They haven't got a clue and they've dropped the interests of small investors like a hot, mouldy potato.

So let's not have any of this nonsense. This is a Prime Minister who is always there to make the big announcement, but, when you look behind it, there's a cardboard cut-out; there's nothing there. There is no plan for the future, and it's ordinary Australians who are suffering as a result. There are 1.5 million Australians out of work or looking for more work, and this mob haven't got a clue about what to do with them.

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