Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the government's Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2020-2021 and Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2020-2021. It is important that there be proper debate in this House about fiscal management. We need to manage public money properly so that we can deliver for people who really need it, so we can ensure not only that investment goes to the right places to grow the economy and support jobs but also that we don't leave people behind. For this government, though, as we have seen during the pandemic and as we also saw beforehand, its focus isn't really fiscal policy. It's not monetary policy, it's not social policy and it's not economic policy; it's just political management. It doesn't matter what the issue is; the focus is, 'How do we manage it?' That's why, before the pandemic hit, it created a circumstance where it was a government in search of a reason for existence—a government that presided over wage stagnation over eight long years, a government that presided over productivity which was going backwards, a government with consumer confidence going backwards, a government with no social policy agenda advancing any great big reforms. That is why we're debating just one item all day today in this chamber—appropriations. Normally this would be up in the Federation Chamber, because we'd be busy dealing with legislation. But under this government, that hasn't occurred.

The pandemic came along, and once again, just as during the bushfires, the Prime Minister showed an incapacity to lead, an incapacity to show leadership, an incapacity to take responsibility for the issues that were there. The first big error was to announce an increase in JobSeeker without announcing a wage subsidies program. So, we saw the queues outside Centrelink, with people being laid off, because the message the government had sent was that people were going to be looked after if they lost their job, rather than asking, 'How do we keep people in employment?' One of the things wage subsidies do is to keep a relationship between an employer and an employee at a time of crisis. We know that is still the case for so many businesses and sectors, such as in Far North Queensland in the tourism sector. But we know it's all going to end at the end of this month because the government now says we can't afford it.

That's why it's worthwhile looking at how this government has managed fiscal policy. At the end of this process we'll have a trillion dollars of debt, we'll have no productivity improvements or productivity agenda, and not a single new major infrastructure project will have been announced. That's not a bad effort, to rack up a trillion dollars of debt without having a major infrastructure initiative across the board or a major skills initiative—not a single dollar into, for example, public and community housing; they have not one thing to show for it there.

But we do know, from appropriations and from the government's fiscal position, that they have found a billion dollars to spend on advertising—a billion dollars on ads to say how well they're going. One of the things they do is market research that's available only to the government. It's cabinet-in-confidence. And the companies that look after the Liberal Party's campaign get the coin from taxpayers in order to do that—and there'd be no cross-subsidisation there, of course, would there? Nothing at all, from this government—nothing to see here! Another thing that defines this government is that they're all photo op and no follow-up. Remember, when we were talking about budgets, that famous statement from the Treasurer? We were 'back in black'. They even had the mugs to prove it. But they were treating the Australian people like mugs.

Mr Thompson interjecting—

The member for Herbert says he's still got the mug. Well, hang on to it, son! It'll be a collector's item, because it's the closest a coalition government are going to do to deliver a budget that's back in black.

We see it across the board. The government said that at the end of this month there'd be four million vaccinations completed. What are they up to? Well, they're not quite up to 300,000. It's 23 March, and they're still more than 3.7 million short. But that pales into insignificance compared with the JobMaker program. A total of 450,000 people were going to participate in that program. And what are they up to, do you think, out of that 450,000? I'll give you a clue: they're 449,479 short of that figure. They missed by this much! They're on 521, out of 450,000. Then you get to the waste—the $40 billion blowout in subs and the $27.5 billion on the NBN. Whilst trashing fibre to the home and business, they produce a second-rate copper system that they've got to go back and retrofit because it's redundant before it's even rolled out, and it costs $27.5 billion more than they said it would.

Then there's the COVID app. Remember that? We all got told we had to download the COVID app. See if you can find anyone who's actually used the COVID app. It cost $70 million. But, of course, they did produce another thing connected with COVID: their trade logo that looked like the coronavirus! That cost $10 million.

Then this week we've had the report of the National Audit Office into the Collinsville new coal-fired power plant proposal. I've done a few infrastructure projects in my time. We never funded proponents of a proposal to do the feasibility study first who had never built a thing. Perhaps they built something at home with Meccano or Lego, but they had no background in doing any of that at all, and so the audit office have called them out. The audit office have said that the company won't be able to deliver the feasibility study with the money from the grant. They had $100 in assets. Seriously: $100 in assets! Not $100 million, they had $100 in assets, and this mob want to give them $4 million to do a feasibility study. Unbelievable! They knew that this proposal wasn't going to stack up, because the market had spoken. Yet what they did was, in order to be dishonest to the people of North Queensland, they said: 'Here you go. Here's $4 million.' He knows it's not going to be built. Everyone knows it's not going to be built.

Then you look at JobKeeper. We're out there arguing for wage subsidies while the government and the Prime Minister were saying it was a dangerous idea. But they managed to design a program that is the most wasteful in Australian political history. As outlined in the report from Ownership Matters, a fifth of the JobKeeper subsidies that went to ASX 300 firms went to businesses that increased their profits during that period. They didn't go down; they went up. If their formula was applied across all businesses, they've run up pretty close to $10 billion going to companies that were making profits. We raised this in question time. What did the Treasurer say about this? The Treasurer said, 'Profitable businesses are a good thing.' Of course they are. But they shouldn't be paid for directly by the taxpayer, money which then goes straight into bonuses for corporate executives.

How does that compare with what they did on robodebt? Alan Tudge, the minister in charge, in announcing the program, at one stage said this:

We'll find you, we'll track you down and you will have to repay those debts and you may end up in prison.

So: 'If you're an unemployed person who got 50 bucks too much, we'll track you down and put you in prison,' but, 'If you are the wealthy corporate executive who's got tens of millions of dollars in increases in your wealth'—and we saw a lot of that on the weekend with the big riches list—'then good on you. You're making profits. Good on you!'

Strong against the weak, but weak against the strong: that sums up this government. The fact is that, if you look at where money has gone in this appropriations bill, we know that $30 million went for land around Badgerys Creek that's worth $3 million. We know that the government spent money appointing a new Fair Work Commissioner today, Sophie Mirabella. When you think 'conciliation', you think the former member for Indi! You really do think of bringing people together. She's the person who used taxpayer funds to fly outside my electorate office with someone demonstrating—the same person who was here with the 'ditch the witch' demo outside Parliament House—with a coffin with my name on it. She spoke at that meeting outside my electorate office in Marrickville. She has been appointed to the Fair Work Commission. Apparently, the AAT was full with former Liberal and National party MPs.

This is a government that just won't take responsibility for anything. This Prime Minister is an empathy vacuum and an accountability black hole. He didn't take responsibility for the bushfires. He didn't take responsibility for aged care. A reported sexual assault occurred just metres from the Prime Minister's office and he won't answer questions. Today we saw in turn on Sky News and News Corp the same attitude that he has in this chamber. He raised an issue that was confidential. He knew about that. He didn't know about the reported sexual assault that occurred two years ago in a minister's office until it was reported in the media.

This is a government that's on its own side. In contrast, Labor says to the Australian people: 'We're on your side. We're on your side when it comes to better wages and conditions. We're on your side when it comes to reviving manufacturing. We're on your side when it comes to cheaper child care. We're on your side when it comes to addressing the problems in aged care. We're on your side when it comes to ensuring that Australians have opportunity through skills and education. We're on your side when it comes to creating a national integrity commission that stops the corruption that is undermining political credibility in this country and confidence in this parliament.'

This is a government without vision for the nation. This is a government that has been in office now for eight long years and just says: 'It's alright. Don't worry about no wage growth. Don't worry about no productivity. Don't worry about the fact that the relationship with China, as the major destination for our exports, has gone backwards and there are all these problems. Don't worry about it. Just keep with us and we'll just keep things going.' If you question anything, you are un-Australian and you're engaging in abuse. That's what the Prime Minister says. News Corp copped that today and they saw a government that really is out of touch and out of time. I say to Australians that our answer to the issues confronting our nation is very simple: 'We're on your side and we will deliver for you.'

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