Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Republic) Share this | Hansard source

I move the amendment in my name on behalf of the shadow Treasurer:

  That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes:

(1) one trillion dollars of debt will be accrued but there is not enough to show for it;

(2) too many Australians will be left behind when the Government cut Jobkeeper at the end of March;

(3) two million Australians are still looking for work or more work;

(4) important policy areas such as child care and social housing remain unaddressed by the Government;

(5) the Government's response to the crisis in aged care is inadequate; and

(6) the Government's budget is riddled with rorts at the expense of a proper vision for the country".

In just about every single economic measure that there is, Australia has gone backwards under this government—in almost every single economic measure. They are worse now than when they were elected in 2013. Wages growth, the principal important factor in ensuring that Australians keep pace with the cost of living, has gone backwards dramatically under this government. And they have no plan whatsoever to stimulate wages in this country and ensure that the average hardworking Australian can keep pace with the cost of living. In fact, they've made it worse by putting in place policies that actively discourage wages growth, such as cuts to penalty rates that they championed some years ago in the hospitality and service sectors that are now bearing fruit and seeing workers in those industries take home less pay for working on weekends and doing shifts than they did when those penalty rates were still in place.

So, Australians are falling further behind in their family incomes under this government. Yet, at the same time, the level of household debt in Australia has been increasing, and Australia is now one of the most unaffordable countries in the world when it comes to household debt, principally because, once again, housing affordability has got worse. And, yet again in Australia, particularly in capital cities, house prices are like a runaway train, out of control. Do you think this government is interested in ensuring that younger Australians have the support they need to get into the housing market? Not on your life. Australians are going backwards when it comes to housing affordability and household debt under this government.

The productivity of our economy, the amount of income we generate per worker in this country, has been falling under this government. That's a significant achievement, I must say! Ever since records have been kept of labour productivity in Australia, there's always been growth. Generally we used to just argue over the level of that growth, not over the fact that it's going backwards and declining, that there is no productivity. In fact, there's now the opposite, and that is that Australians are generating less income per employee than they had under the Labor government. So, I've got to give it to them: they've set a record, this government—the first time in Australia's history that labour productivity has actually gone backwards, under their watch. It's certainly nothing to be proud of.

Wealth inequality has been increasing under this government. We see that not only in the figures but also in the policies of this government, which do nothing to ensure that there's a fairer distribution of income in this country. And the government is now planning another stage of income tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefit the most wealthy Australians and those who are on incomes above $200,000 a year.

But it gets worse. The policies that this government's put in place to deal with COVID and to try and assist workers to ensure that they stay in employment—as the member for Fenner has pointed out on several occasions and has done great work in researching—have actually entrenched this inequality that we have in wealth in Australia by providing government support through the JobKeeper allowance to some of the most wealthy Australians, who then thumb their nose at the Australian worker and the Australian taxpayer by refusing to pay it back when they make a massive profit and distribute it as dividends and executive bonuses. I mean, you cannot make this stuff up! There are Australian workers that are struggling to make ends meet. There are many Australian small businesses that aren't going to survive at the end of this month. We know that. They're going to hit the wall. When JobKeeper ends, small Australian businesses are going to end, and so are the jobs that are associated with those small businesses. But this government isn't interested in looking at supporting those businesses beyond the end of March. This government isn't interested in asking the likes of Harvey Norman, who made a half-a-billion-dollar profit over the first half of the financial year, or Premier Investments, which made a profit—they were happy to take a government subsidy from the taxpayer. They pocketed JobKeeper and are refusing to pay it back. Yet struggling Australian small businesses, whose owners have generally mortgaged their homes to make sure they can survive, will go to the wall. They will go to the wall because the government is not interested in helping them one bit but won't ask Harvey Norman to pay back the $22 million in JobKeeper that they pocketed while they still made a half-a-billion-dollar profit and managed to do a distribution to shareholders. It says everything about this government, and that is why wealth inequality is getting worse under this government.

In the area of our environment, climate change, trying to put in place measures to protect our kids' future, you'd have to think that one of the most fundamental responsibilities we have in this place is to protect the next generation of Australians from a phenomenon that is affecting the universe, and the world, that we know is going to occur and that every single scientist worth their salt says is occurring. But not under this government. If you look at the department of energy's website and its quarterly reports on carbon emissions, you will see that carbon emissions in this country, on an annual basis, have been increasing under this government. Our environment has been getting dirtier. Our environment has been getting more pollution that is going to leave an unsafe environment for our kids. In fact, it's well-known that Australia ranks 54th of 61 countries on the global climate performance index in 2021. That is an absolute disgrace.

We were actually reducing our carbon emissions in this country. When Labor was in government we put a price on carbon emissions. And guess what? They started to fall; the policy actually worked. Yet we became the only country in the world that said: 'We've got a successful policy that's reducing carbon emissions. Let's get rid of it so the big polluters can start polluting again and we hand an unsafe environment on to our kids.' What country does that to its citizens? What country does that and leaves that sort of future for its children? I'll tell you what country does that, a country run by the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government. That's exactly what they did. They removed the price on carbon emissions and—guess what?—carbon emissions have been going up again. I will admit that emissions have fallen over the past 12 months, but that's because of COVID. It's got nothing to do with this government's policies at all. Because of COVID, Australians weren't driving on the road as much, they weren't consuming as much electricity, and export industries shut down for a period and our carbon emissions decreased. It had nothing to do with this government's policies.

When it comes to a hospital waiting lists—a fundamental policy that people expect from their governments is one providing adequate healthcare services—they're getting worse under this government. We all saw that it tried a GP tax in 2014. Hospital waiting lists are now blowing out.

If you want an indictment on this government, look no further than aged care. The title of the interim report of the aged care royal commission is one word, Neglect. It says everything about this government. It's a perfect description of this government's approach to aged care—neglect. We know that there are now over 100,000 elderly Australians in this country waiting for an aged-care package. The majority of them are waiting for a level 4 package, one of the more serious levels of aged-care package. Thank you to all those hardworking elderly Australians who served our nation in wars and who built this country. What are we going to do for you? We're going to cut funding for aged care. Liberal policies are going to mean that we're going to take nurses out of nursing homes so there's no requirement anymore for a nursing home to have a nurse on duty. The standard of care is going to fall. We're going to put 100,000 Australians on a waiting list and—guess what?—28,000 of them have died waiting for an aged-care package under this government over the last two years. Thank you to elderly Australians from the Morrison government!

When it comes to the National Broadband Network, Australia has become an absolute joke. Only this government could come up with a policy whereby it could say: 'We're going to stop Labor's fibre-to-the-premises policy and we're going to come up with a policy that is inferior and doesn't provide the same download speed—that is, fibre to the node or fibre to the kerb—and then we'll use copper for the rest of the connection. Copper is an outdated technology, and we're going to make sure that this not only results in an inferior technology but costs the nation more.' Guess what? In a few years time, we'll have to go back and reinstall new technology, because it will be outdated, at an even greater cost to the Australian taxpayer. Only a coalition government, only the geniuses on that side of the parliament, could come up with a policy whereby you institute an inferior technology that costs more than the original plan. That is what has happened under the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government. What's the result? Again, Australia goes backwards. We are now 61st in the world when it comes to average download speeds for Australian households and businesses. I think there are only three nations in the OECD behind us. What a remarkable achievement for this government to have Australia fall to 61st in the world for average download speeds!

When it comes to investment in research and development and trying to build for the future, again this government ensures that Australia goes backwards. In 2013, Australia invested 2.1 per cent of GDP in research and development. What's the figure now? It's 1.79 per cent. We've gone backwards under this government. The result is that business investment in Australia under the coalition government—believe it or not—has fallen. It's fallen quite dramatically. Australian businesses aren't investing anymore because there's no support, there's no government plan and there's no map for the future from this government about how you stimulate research and development in emerging industries and produce that incentive for businesses to invest. It's simply not there.

We now have a working poor in this country. They're working in insecure employment and worried about whether or not they're going to have a job next week. They're without the necessary conditions and necessary supports to maintain a liveable lifestyle.

That is the reality of life under this coalition government. In every single measure, whether it's wages growth, productivity, business investment, household debt, housing affordability, wealth inequality, climate change, hospital waiting lists, aged care, the National Broadband Network, investment in research and development or security of work, Australia has gone backwards under the Morrison government. That is a damning indictment on the government and their approach to supporting the Australian people.

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